TITLE: Ain't It Funny.

AUTHOR: Kelly Rowe

RATING: PG-13

DISCLAIMER: Buffy, Angel and all other characters (except those I make up) are the absolute property of Joss Whedon, Fox, Mutant Enemy, UPN and Warner Bros (If I owned them, do you think that they would be acting this ridiculous right now).

SUMMARY: Buffy is an FBI agent and is sent undercover to Sunnydale, years after leaving it.

SPOILERS: BTVS season 1 and 2. Some minor spoilers for other seasons and ATS.

TIMELINE: Approximately 2008.

DISTRIBUTION: You want you can have it; just tell me where you put it. Any lists just take it.

PAIRING: Buffy/Angel, Giles/Jenny, Xander/Anya, Faith/Angel (slight)

CATEGORY: AU, Action and Romance.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Buffy moved away from Sunnydale the day before her 17th birthday (her dad gained custody) and has had limited contact with the other Scoobies (namely Willow) since then.

AUTHOR'S NOTES 2: For the purposes of this story, Caritas is located in Sunnydale and is located where Willie's bar used to be.

Part 1

"Hey Summers" Dave Maxwell, Buffy's best friend and partner yelled across the crowded office. "AD Parks wants to see right now."

Buffy looked up from the crime report she was reading, surprise evident in her eyes. She'd only been in Parks' office a few times and then only because she'd caused some trouble or broken one of the FBI's cardinal rules.

"Why? I haven't done anything... have I?"

Dave walked over to her, trying not to smile. "Not that I know of," he replied, "But then again with you around... anything is possible."

"Tell me what in the blue hell is going on?" she demanded.

"No way" he told her, "I'm letting Parks have the honor of doing that." He moved away towards his desk and looking back over his shoulder winked at her, right before he burst out laughing.

Buffy watched him sit at his desk like he hadn't a care in the world and wondered what he had thought was so darn funny. Needing to know before she died of curiosity, she got up and headed to the assistant director's office and knocked on the door.

"Come in," came a muffled voice through the door.

Buffy entered the office and said, "You wanted to see me sir?"

"Certainly Agent Summers. Please take a seat" AD Parks replied smiling. After she was seated he continued, "I have an undercover assignment for you and Agent Maxwell."

At least Buffy knew why Dave had been laughing, she hated undercover ops with a passion. She was curious though, why he had been told before her about the assignment. Surely it wasn't because of the incident?

"Sir" she began slowly, "I do have one question before we begin."

Parks nodded to her, "Go ahead."

"Why was Agent Maxwell told before me? Isn't it procedure to discuss it with both of us at the same time?"

"Agent Maxwell requested it be done this way," Parks answered trying not to smile.

Buffy shook her head, "Slam a guy into a wall one time..."

"*Into* being the operative word" Parks said recalling the incident clearly, until then he had thought that reports of Buffy's strength were exaggerated. "It took us nearly an hour to pry him out of the wall."

"It's not like I plan on doing it to him a second time" Buffy pouted, "Unless of course this assignment will require me to pretend to be Mrs. Maxwell again."

"It doesn't," Parks assured her quickly, "In fact you'll be posing as a college student."

Buffy was definitely confused, "If it wasn't my role in the op that worried him, what was it?"

"The location."

"Huh?"

"You'll be attending classes at the University of California at Sunnydale. Both Agent Maxwell and the Bureau know of your... past with the area and if you wish not to..."

"I'll go" she said quickly, surprising herself when the words came out of her own mouth.

Before Buffy had a chance to renege, Parks was on the intercom. "Josie," he said to his secretary, "Would you bring in Agent Maxwell."

While they waited Buffy thought about what she had just agreed to do. Returning to Sunnydale after all this time was nuts, especially after all the pain that the town had caused her. Her mom pretending that she didn't exist after her dad gained custody of her and Dawn, her so-called friend's who had barely written and made excuses not to take her calls and then there was Angel... she didn't even want to think about him, because he was the one who'd hurt her the most.

When Dave finally walked in and sat down, Parks handed them each a case folder.

"Over the past two months there has been at least eight murders on the UC Sunnydale campus. All of the victims have certain things in common, they are all female, students and live in Stevenson Hall. They are all are short, thin with dark hair and introverted... not to many friends" Parks told them as they opened the folders and examined the crime scene photos. "As you can tell there wasn't much left for the coroner to examine and the local officials are stumped. That's where you two come in" Parks paused briefly. "Buffy will go undercover as a student and Dave will be the Bureau's contact with the locals. That also means secret communications between the two of you... I don't want the locals to think we're usurping their authority and also we need to keep Buffy's cover a secret. Condition's okay?"

"Yes Sir," they chorused.

"You leave tonight Buffy" Parks said. "Dave will arrive tomorrow. All information you both need are in the folder. Any questions?" When there was only silence he continued with, "Dismissed."

Part 2

Buffy couldn't believe that she was back in Sunnydale. Although now she was looking and acting the total opposite to her old persona. Gone was the long, straight blond hair, replaced by shoulder length, mousy brown with a slight wave. She wore no make up and the only jewelry she had was the cross that *he* had given her so long ago. Her clothing was like nothing she would usually wear, the clothes she had been given were almost all jeans, sweaters and t-shirts. Of course the FBI had tipped it all off when the picked her new identity for the assignment, Beth Winters. She was apparently from Seattle and was a criminology major. The bureau had figured out that if this was so, she could ask questions less suspiciously. She was however thankful that she'd managed to get a single dorm room, she didn't want or need to deal with a roommate. She sat down on her bed and looked around at the sparsely decorated dorm room and the huge pile of brand new text books that were piled on the desk. She sighed and wondered why she had the part of the assignment that involved homework and assignments.

A knock at the door disturbed her sulking and when she opened it she found a perky blond standing there.

"Hi. I'm Jemmie Blake," the blond said, "I live next door."

Buffy sighed, now she had to be friendly. "Beth Winters."

"Hey are you okay? You look kinda bummed."

"Just a little homesick," Buffy lied.

Jemmie smiled, "I know the feeling. So where are you from?"

"Seattle."

"I'm from Denver. Isn't California a total shock? I mean all that sun..." Jemmie droned on and Buffy tuned her out. After a few minutes she said, "I'll see ya round."

"Bye," Buffy said closing the door as quickly as she could.

She just wanted to be left alone to do her job and then escape back to Washington, without being spotted by anyone she used to know. She climbed into bed and closed her eyes wondering if things could possibly get any worse.

It was during her Humanities elective, Supernatural Mythology, that worse happened. She was just sitting in the lecture theatre, blending in with the masses, no one looking at her would think that she was anything but a typical college student. And then suddenly *he* walked in and Buffy almost had a heart attack. It was all so unbelievable because it was the middle of the day and the whole room was bathed in sunlight and yet... it was *him*. Angel, the first and only guy to ever break her fragile heart. Buffy sank lower in her chair and tried to be invisible, hoping that in this large class that she now looked average enough not to stand out. The chance was reduced when he scanned the room and he seemed to do a double take over the area where she was sitting. But he didn't say anything and continued on with the introductory lecture, this however did not ease Buffy's mind and she was a bundle of nerves until the class was over.

As soon as the class was done, Buffy jumped up and practically ran from the room. Unfortunately she ran into her pesky neighbor.

"Hey Beth" Jennie said perkily, "So you're taking myths too. That's so cool."

"Yeah," Buffy replied distractedly. She didn't care about anything except escaping the classrooms vicinity and away from Angel. She really didn't need him to recognize her right now, not when she was trying to maintain cover.

Jemmie sighed dreamily, "Don't you think the prof is *so* cute? Too bad he's got a girlfriend."

"He does?" Buffy hoped she didn't sound too heartbroken. {So much for, I'll love you forever} she thought bitterly.

"Yeah. She's a total slut though, you should see how she dresses," Jemmie filled her in.

Buffy suddenly wished the earth would open up and swallow her. "I have to go," she said hurriedly, "I have another class." She wanted to get away, be alone and gather her thoughts and quite possible sulk over this latest piece of information.

"What do you have?" Jemmie asked curiously. Buffy simply handed the girl her schedule. "Cool, we're in the same chem class."

"Great," Buffy mumbled sarcastically.

Jemmie grabbed hold of Buffy's arm and said, "Let's go."

Buffy allowed herself to be dragged, only because it took her far away from Angel.

"I'm telling you" Angel said at the Scooby meeting that night, "It was Buffy."

They were all at Giles and Jenny's house for the weekly meeting which, since the Hellmouth was closed, was more an excuse to socialize and catch up than anything else.

"Angel, you're imagining things, "Giles replied shaking his head. It still hurt that Buffy had just disappeared like that.

"Yeah," Faith agreed possessively. She'd always lived in the shadow of the almighty Buffy and even though they'd never met, she hated her with a blinding passion. Angel was her's, had been her's for a year and no blond ex-gal pal - love of his life was taking him away from her.

Angel kicked the sofa in frustration, "I'm not crazy or imagining things. It was Buffy."

Willow looked at her friend sympathetically. "Angel, this girl is what nineteen... Buffy would be twenty seven or twenty eight now. It's unlikely that it's her."

"And why would Buffy disguise herself and hide out in your class?" Xander asked him. He and Angel still weren't the best of friends, but over the years they had learned to tolerate each other.

"I know that it should be impossible," Angel replied. "But when I enter the room I feel Buffy, when I look at this girl I see Buffy." They all looked at him with pity evident in their eyes, except for Faith who radiated jealousy, but Angel didn't care. "It is Buffy and I'm going to prove it," he told them storming out of the house.

Stirred by Angel's conviction, Willow spoke up. "Maybe he is right."

Giles looked at her sadly, "I wish he was."

Part 3

Just after class ended the next day, Angel ignored the hoards of students asking questions about the topic and followed Buffy down the corridor. He just had to prove, to himself and the others, that this Beth Winters was actually in reality Buffy Summers. And when he'd proven it he'd... well, he didn't know what he'd do. Actually he did, he'd demand an explanation for her disappearance from his life especially after she'd proclaimed to love him. But first he had to prove it, he needed facts and not just what his love-sick heart and head were telling him. He looked ahead to the suspect in front of him and noticed that she didn't seem to be heading back to the dorm, instead she was heading off campus. He stepped up his pursuit and eventually he saw her walk onto the grounds of the Sunnydale Motor Inn and head straight to a room in the back and saw a guy let inside. Angel snuck up to the door and tried to hear what was going on inside, his jealousy overriding his common sense. He couldn't really hear anything and then suddenly he had the sensation of falling, as the door was opened.

Buffy was physically and emotionally drained, she'd forgotten exactly how bad college was. So when she had been dismissed from class, all she'd really wanted to do was head back to dorm and sleep, but instead she'd had to haul ass over to the motor inn to check in with Dave. She knocked and he finally let her in.

"Hey," she said greeting her buddy and partner.

"Hey Summers," Dave replied as he walked back over to his laptop. "Find out anything new?"

"Nope."

"Same here," Dave replied, "Unless of course you believe in monsters."

Buffy was suddenly awake and interested, "Monsters?"

"Yeah. A couple of rookies swear that they saw the killer and he was a monster" Dave told her laughing.

"I thought the Hellmouth was closed," Buffy muttered to herself.

"What did you say?" Dave asked her.

Before she had a chance to answer, they both heard a noise at the door. They both drew their weapons and Dave opened the door. To Buffy's surprise Angel fell into the room. To keep cover Buffy quickly hid her weapon.

"Who are you?" Dave yelled as he pointed his weapon at Angel's head.

Angel looked pleadingly at Buffy, "Buff?"

"I think he's one of my professors," she answered. "But my name's Beth, not Buff."

"Buffy, stop it."

"Huh? Stop what. My name is Beth," Buffy repeated.

Angel threw his hands up in frustration, "When you're ready to admit the truth, you know where to find me." Then he walked away.

Dave closed the door, "Who was that?"

Buffy sighed, "Just an old boyfriend."

Dave looked at her in disbelief, "You used to date?"

"Yeah."

"Special Agent Nun used to date?" Dave asked again as if repeating the question would change the answer.

"Don't look so shocked, "Buffy told him, "I was a semi-normal teenager." Dave still just stood there. "Now can we get some work done, before someone else dies."

"Okay," Dave said coming out of his self-induced catatonic state. He looked at her like she was an alien and said, "Buffy the nun dating... If that can happen, then I guess monsters could be real."

Buffy just rolled her eyes and picked up the case file.

When Buffy finally left Dave's room she was relieved to find that Angel was not skulking around the bushes waiting for her. The case was troubling her enough without her having to pretend that she was someone else. She started to head back to the dorm, but decided at the last second to go and beat some information out of Willie. After all if the killer was a demon, who better to know than a slimy piece of scum like Willie.

When she arrived instead of finding a dingy, run down bar; she found a crowded and clean karaoke bar. She went inside and was impressed, the place had been through some major changes. Buffy took a seat and was instantly set upon by a green guy.

"Hello," he said, "And welcome to Caritas. You're new aren't you?"

"Gee, how could you tell?" Buffy replied sarcastically.

The green guy ignored her reply, "I'm the host. You want information, you have to sing."

"Sing?"

"Yes... after all dearie, this is a karaoke bar," he told her.

Buffy stared at him, "You're an Anagogic demon aren't you?"

"Yes," he replied staring at her, "How did you know?"

"My watcher talked about all sorts," Buffy told him.

"Watcher? You're the other slayer... the missing one."

"I'm not missing," she replied.

The Host was curious as to what was going on. "Why don't you sing?"

"What?"

"Whatever you want, sweet-cheeks."

Buffy took a deep breath, "Okay then, lets do it."

Part 4

When Buffy had finally finished the five tortuous minutes of her song. She headed over towards the host. "Okay. What's in my future?"

"A reunion with some old friends," he told her. At the look on her face he said, "They have information you need."

"So I'm just supposed to walk up to them and say, hey remember me I was your friend and I totally bailed on you about a decade ago."

The host shook his head, "No. You're supposed to wait until the time is right and then contact them."

"Lucky me," Buffy muttered sarcastically.

The host took pity on her, "I know what will cheer you up."

"What? Besides death."

"How about a free drink?" he offered for the first time ever.

"Sorry, don't drink."

"Smart girl." He leaned in closer, "Don't worry things work out the way they are meant too. No matter what."

When Buffy returned to her dorm room she found something shoved under her door. She looked at it and found it was a flyer advertising a frat party at Lowell House, she was so busy looking she didn't hear her pesky neighbor approach until it was too late.

"Hi Beth," Jemmie said smiling, "You gonna go to the party."

Buffy shook her head, "No. I'm not exactly a party girl."

"It'll be fun," Jemmie tried to convince her, "You could go with me and some of the gang."

Buffy smiled at her, "Thanks, but I think I'll pass."

"Okay, but if you change your mind..."

"I know where to find you," Buffy replied echoing the words spoken to her only hours earlier by Angel.

"Goodnight."

"'Night," Buffy said going inside her room and shutting the door.

Once Buffy had done that she sat on her bed and sighed, too much had gone on for her to ignore. And she had a nagging feeling that although he'd given up chasing her today, Angel would be back on her trail tomorrow. How was she supposed to do her job when he was around? When all she really wanted to do was run into his arms, or beat his head in... she couldn't decide which. She knew that she wasn't going to come to any conclusions right then, so she changed into her pajamas and climbed into bed, quickly falling into a restless sleep.

Faith looked across the kitchen table at Angel and wondered what was going on. He'd called her and asked her to come over and she'd expected some serious bedroom action, instead he'd been sitting across the table from her staring for the past two hours.

"What in the hell is wrong with you?" she asked finally snapping. "You ask me to come over and then you stare at me. Talk to me."

"I think we should stop seeing each other," he said.

Faith paled in shock, "What?"

"Seeing Buffy again... even if it isn't her. I love her, not you."

"Let me get this straight. Your dumping me over a girl who ditched you a decade ago and who may or may not be disguised and hiding out in your class."

"Yeah." When she said it like that it sounded ridiculous, but somehow he knew that it was Buffy.

Faith stood up, "You're a fucking idiot and I hope that it isn't her, so you spend the rest of your miserable life alone, because I won't be waiting."

"I didn't expect you too."

Faith went to leave, but at the last second turned back. "You know what the worst thing about this is?"

"What?" he asked already knowing the answer.

"That I've been in love with you for years, while you loved her and that I was stupid enough to think that I could change your mind, " Faith told him as she left.

Angel just stared at the now closed door and whispered, "I'm sorry."

When Buffy awoke the next morning she realised that she was late for her meeting with Dave and she rushed to get over to the motor inn. When she arrived she saw a squad car leaving and headed as quickly as she could towards Dave's room. She banged on the door and no one answered, so she tried the door and found it open. Once inside she found Dave packing.

"What's going on?" she asked him.

Dave looked up, "The locals have arrested a suspect."

"So?"

"They requested that I leave," Dave told her.

"We're leaving?"

"No, I'm leaving. The locals don't know about you and the bureau has decided to leave you in place... just in case," Dave said packing the last of his clothes and shutting his case.

"Wait a second. You're leaving me here alone without back up?" Buffy question in disbelief. It was totally against policy.

Dave sighed and looked at her, "It's okay Buff. You can call the LA office if you need something."

"The LA office is at least two hours away. What if I need help immediately?"

"You'll be fine," Dave said checking that he had gotten everything.

Buffy looked at him, "What aren't you telling me?"

"The orders didn't come from Parks," he whispered.

"Who?"

"The director."

Buffy stared at Dave, "The director is going against policy. What is going on?"

"I don't know," Dave said hugging her, "But be careful."

"I will," she said watching him go.

Part 5

"Faith, calm down," Willow said. "Now tell me what's wrong?"

Faith paced the room, trying to keep her anger contained. Ever since Angel's little announcement of I love Buffy not you, the night before she'd been in a rage. She'd dusted every vampire she came across and downed every demon until she was so exhausted that she'd barely made it back to her place before falling asleep. When she woke up in the exact same mood, she decided to talk to someone and Willow was the only one who wouldn't make fun of her.

"Angel dumped me!"

"B-but he and you seemed so happy. It was the longest relationship he'd had since..." Willow shut up when she realised what she was about to say.

"Since Buffy," Faith finished. Then she continued, "She's then damn reason he dumped me."

Willow closed her eyes and shook her head, "He still thinks that girl is her, doesn't he?"

"Yep."

"Maybe he'll come to his senses?" Willow suggested. She didn't know what to do or say to help Faith, a big part of her secretly hoped Angel was right and that it was Buffy. Even though she was Faith's friend she still missed Buffy.

Faith looked at her, "In what four years when that girl graduates?"

"Oh."

An idea clicks over in Faith's head, "I can find some sort of proof that this girl isn't her. Then he'd have to believe that Buffy really is gone."

"Sure... you could do that," Willow said.

Faith hugged Willow, "You are such a genius." Then she ran out of the door.

Willow just stood there wondering what was going on and what she'd said that had cheered Faith up.

"Willow, honey," a voice yelled from the bedroom. "Who was that?"

"It was only Faith," Willow replied heading back to the bedroom. "She wanted to talk to me, so don't worry Oz."

Buffy walked around on autopilot all day. She had no idea what to do next and every time she tried to call AD Parks she was told he was in an important meeting and could not be disturbed for any reason. So by the time Angel's class rolled around she was pretty out of it and didn't even realize that she'd put her hand up and volunteered for some sort of demonstration. She walked down to the front of the class.

"Stand right there Ms. Winters," Angel told her.

Buffy did what she was told, as she tried to figure out what in the hell she had put up her hand for.

"Okay," Angel told the class, "Ms. Winters is going to help me demonstrate how a vampire bites a victim."

"I'm what?"

The class snickered.

Angel shook his head at her, "Don't tell me you weren't listening to the lecture?"

"Okay, I won't."

The class snickered again.

Angel chose to ignore her and continued with his demonstration. He told the class what he was about to do and then moved closer to Buffy to do it. All the time she just stood there and let him. When he lowered his mouth to her neck, she felt the press of his warm lips against her throat instead of a set of fangs scraping. Allowing him to do this brought back some pretty strong memories and feelings from almost a decade ago and she could almost pretend that that this was some kind of dream. At least until she heard him whisper.

"Just like old times, huh?"

Before she could do or say anything the bell signaling class was over rang and Buffy rushed back to her seat and collected her things. She didn't notice all the girl's looks of envy and jealousy directed at her, as she practically ran from the classroom.

Buffy didn't know where she was headed, but she soon found herself blocked in by the crowd. No one was moving and for a large crowd of college students they were atypically quiet. Then she heard someone whisper her name.

"Beth."

She turned and found her annoying neighbor waving her over. Without an excuse to give she made her way slowly over to Jemmie and her friend's. She tried to view it as a way to get information.

"Anyone know what's going on here?" Buffy asked curiously.

"Another girl was murdered," one of Jemmie's friend's whispered.

Another joined in, "It's not the same guy though."

"Why?" Buffy asked.

"One the other guy was in jail when it happened and two, this girl's a blond."

Buffy stood there with the group and watched the police go over the area and talk to witnesses and the coroner's office arrive to take the body away. She was also confused, suspects rarely break their pattern and a blond was definitely not the pattern. All was revealed when the coroner's office guys moved the body and the blond wig fell of her head. The victim was a brunette, just like all the others. And the look of terror that crossed the local official's faces when this happened didn't encourage Buffy one little bit.

Part 6

Angel figured that he was going crazy or had already arrived in cuckoo land. Why else would he be standing behind some bushes staring at Buffy's dorm room window in the middle of the night. Actually it was more like ten o'clock and he felt like he had to be near her, especially now. This afternoon's little demonstration had proven to him that she was Buffy, all he had to do was get her to admit it to him and beg him for forgiveness, after explaining where she'd been for a decade and why she'd left. After she'd explained everything to *his* satisfaction then he may explain what had happened to him... alright even if she'd didn't he'd probably blab it anyway, especially since he'd been waiting for years to tell her.

About how the last apocalypse had finally granted him his redemption... his shanshu. About how he'd long to tell Buffy all about it, but she wasn't there. The council informed them that since they had one slayer on side for the battle, they didn't need Buffy too. That was when Faith finally quit the council and went out on her own, helping people and defending Sunnydale - minus the Hellmouth which had been closed during the battle - her own way. He'd helped her whenever he could, but eventually he felt like he was abusing Giles' hospitality and started a small detective agency in LA. The agency had been incredibly successful, so much so he'd taken on a partner - a half breed named Doyle, who had visions from the powers that be. In time they'd needed more help and through a tip from Willow, Cordy had arrived on their doorstep. Everything was going okay, but it seemed that too many demons and other things that go bump in the night remembered him from his vampire days and were always trying to kill him. Eventually he tired of that and sold the agency to Doyle and Cordelia and moved back to Sunnydale. Unsure of what to do next, it was actually Willow that had come up with the idea of him teaching... and had helped him to fudge up some credentials.

Now, five years later here he was stalking one of his students, risking all he'd worked for. Somehow he didn't even care, he needed her... to know what had happened, much more than he needed to teach a bunch of spoiled brats about vampires. He saw her light go out and figuring she was going to bed was about to leave. Then he saw something leave the dorm and head off down the path towards Caritas, it didn't take much thought to figure out who it was. Slowly he followed, determined that tonight was the night he was going to get his answers.

Buffy entered Caritas and took a seat at the bar, she needed help or guidance or something and figured she might get it there. After a couple of minutes the host headed over to her.

"Hey sweet-cheeks, back already?"

Buffy looked at him, "Well duh?"

"So..."

"I need help."

The host patted her on the shoulder, "I think it's time for that reunion."

"No way," Buffy replied. "I can't face them... especially all at once."

The host saw Angel enter the bar and said, "How about one at a time? Starting with him."

Buffy turned to see what the host was pointing to and saw Angel. "Shit."

Faith watched silently from the corner of the building as the supposed Buffy left her dorm, she was about to make her move and enter the building when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. It was Angel... following *her*. This made Faith even more determined to prove that this was some random girl and not Saint Buffy. She moved silently up the stairs towards the girl's floor and room, pausing briefly when the fear of discovery seemed imminent. Eventually she arrived at her destination and quickly and carefully picked the lock on the girl's room. When she entered she immediately saw something suspicious, the room was totally bare. There was no knickknacks to serve as reminders of home, no photos, nothing personal at all and the only books in sight were text books. No normal person lived there... in fact it didn't even look like anyone lived there. She checked all the usual places, including under the bed - which didn't even have dust bunnies hiding under there. When she did find something it was in the closet, under the neatly hung up 'dork' clothes. It was a locked briefcase. She sat down on the neatly made bed and started to pick the locks on that, it was just as easy as the door, no one was obviously expected to really be interested in the contents. Faith took a deep breath and opened the case up. What she saw inside caused her to gasp.

Buffy watched the host walk off and took a deep breath, gathering her courage. She got off of the stool and with a bravado she didn't feel sauntered over to Angel's table.

"Buy you a drink, big boy?"

Angel looked up in surprise, he hadn't expected her to approach him and he was momentarily thrown off guard. "Sure."

Buffy took a seat across from him and didn't quite know what to do or say next. In all her visions of returning to Sunnydale for this case, she'd never pictured this moment. In fact she'd avoided having to think about any of the old gang, especially Angel. Unfortunately the host was correct she did need help and she couldn't think of anyone more qualified for this particular problem, especially if the killer was a monster.

"So you're not going to talk?" Angel's voice intruded on her thoughts.

Buffy sighed, "I need your help."

Angel looked at her in surprise. "What no pretending that you don't know me now? Why should I help you?"

Buffy shook her head, "I knew this was a bad idea."

Buffy tried to stand up, but Angel grabbed her and held her in place.

"Oh no. This time you don't get to run," he told her.

Buffy froze, "Is that what you think I did?"

"Yeah," Angel replied looking in her eyes. "Isn't it?"

"No."

Part 7

"Well..." Angel asked impatiently, "What did happen then?"

Buffy looked around at the now silent bar. Every demon in the place, including the host, was staring at them; using them for the nightly entertainment.

"Could we discuss this somewhere else? I don't exactly want to be the tomorrows gossip item in the demon community," she replied.

Angel didn't care that they were the center of attention, all he wanted was answers, but if Buffy needed privacy before she told him... then she'd get it.

"I know a place."

"Let's go," she told him.

Angel grabbed her arm and practically dragged her from Caritas and towards his place.

Willow and Oz were awoken by a loud banging noise coming from out front. They were both going to ignore it until they heard Faith yell.

"Come on, Wils. I really need to talk to you."

Willow turned to Oz, "I'd better see what's wrong."

"Just leave her be," Oz replied, "She'll find her own way."

"I feel responsible for her," Willow said getting up and grabbing her robe. "I won't be long."

Oz watched her go and called after her, "I'm here if you need me."

Five minutes later Angel dragged Buffy through the door of his apartment, the exact same one that he'd had when she'd lived in Sunnydale. Once he was through the door he turned to her.

"Tell me?"

It was the moment she'd been dreading for close to a decade. She knew that she had to tell him, but would he understand? Would anyone?

"This might take awhile," she told him moving past him and taking a seat in his small living room.

Angel took the hint and sat across from her, "I've got the time."

"Well, a couple of weeks before my birthday," Buffy began slowly. She needed to explain everything and rushing might make her forget something's. "My mom was acting weird... even weirder than she usually did. I didn't know what was going on, at least not then."

She paused to take a breath and Angel waited for her to continue.

"I found out what was up with her a couple of days before my birthday, when my dad showed up out of no where. I hadn't seen him for six months and thought he just wanted to see me. Instead it turns out he had a new job, one that depended on a family man image... not a weekend dad one. The reason mom had been acting so nuts, was 'cause dad had sued her custody. My whole life had been decided behind my back. He wasn't there to see me and Dawnie... he was there to take us to LA."

"If you were in LA... why didn't you come see us?" Angel asked.

Buffy shook her head, "It's not that simple. I was in LA, for about three days. Dad's new job was in Washington."

Angel stared at her his eyes round in shock.

"Suddenly I found myself in strange town, stranger even than Sunnydale - with no friends, Dawn acting like a major brat and a whole new way of life to get used to. I even got a new watcher. I tried to call everyone, but Xander's parents thought I was some debt collector, no one was ever home at Willow's, Snyder had banned me from calling the school and I didn't know Giles' number."

"What about me?"

Buffy looked at him, "You didn't have a phone back then."

"You couldn't have written?" he asked her.

"I did write... no one answered, except Willow."

Angel shook his head, "I didn't get a letter."

"What *a* letter? I sent you one every day for a year," Buffy told him.

Angel looked at her in disbelief, "I never got one." He saw Buffy start to retreat away from him and tried to get her back on track, "What was your watcher like?"

"Wes?"

"Was that his name?" Angel asked.

"Yeah," Buffy replied. "I hated him. He tried so hard to be the perfect watcher that he... well, he screwed up more often than I did. It wasn't until after the council retired me and Wes found himself unemployed that he really found himself."

"Why was he unemployed? Didn't they just recall him?"

"He had a girlfriend and..."

"He didn't want to go back," Angel finished.

Buffy smiled for one brief second, "I actually like him now. He's the reason I even went to the academy."

"The academy?"

"The FBI... I work for them."

"Why? I mean how did he influence you?" Angel was curious how someone she hated at one time, suddenly had so much influence on her life.

Buffy was silent for a second. "I'd just finished college and didn't know what to do next. Every perspective employer saw that I'd burned down Hemery's gym and who wants to hire a person with pyromaniacal tendencies? Wes had a friend that worked for the Bureau and he got me an interview despite my record. Once they saw what I could do... they couldn't sign me up fast enough."

Her explanation had answered some of his questions, but he had so many more. Why didn't she ever come back? Was she seeing anyone? Angel had a feeling that he wouldn't get all his answers tonight. Maybe not even anytime soon. However there was one thing he wanted to ask.

"You said Willow wrote?" At her nod he continued, "She never told us."

"She didn't?"

"No," he replied. It was strange, why had Willow kept her correspondence with Buffy a secret from the gang.

Buffy shook her head, "That's strange."

"When did you stop writing?"

"College," Buffy told him. "Things just got so hectic..."

"I understand," Angel murmured.

They both sat there in silence wondering what was going on.

"Faith, what's wrong?" Willow asked as she let her friend inside.

Faith dropped the briefcase that she'd taken from Buffy's room and dragged her hand through her tangled hair. "Angel was right."

Willow was confused, it was two o'clock in the morning, not exactly the best time for conversations. "About what?"

"*Buffy*."

The confusion dropped, "It's her?"

"Yep," Faith said. "Along with a whole bunch of scary shit."

"What are you talking about?"

Faith picked up the briefcase and walked over to Willow and Oz's dining table. She laid it down and opened it. "I mean this!"

Willow looked inside and felt sick. "Oh My God."

"That's an understatement."

Part 8

Willow just stared at the contents of the briefcase, it was filled with photographs of the murdered girls in their butchered states and assorted documents. Willow didn't quite know what to make of it.

"So," Faith said looking at Willow expectantly. "Do you think she's the killer?"

Willow just looked at Faith, trying to absorb what she'd seen. "No," she finally answered, "Buffy wouldn't do that."

"How do you know? You haven't seen the girl in ten years... she could've been in an institution or something," Faith told her. "You don't know what she's capable of."

Willow shook her head, "There's gotta be another explanation."

"Well, while you think of one," Faith replied walking towards the door. "I'm gonna go warn Angel about her. He could be next."

Willow called after her, "I doubt it."

"Better safe than sorry."

Willow heard the door close and sighed. Faith was really nuts over this break up... as if Buffy would ever kill a bunch of girls. She sat down in front of the briefcase and started to go through the contents, there had to be something in their to explain the situation and she was going to find it, even if it took all night.

"So what did you want help with?" Angel asked her suddenly breaking the silence that had fallen around them.

"My case," Buffy replied. "The campus murders."

Angel's mouth fell open in shock and suddenly Buffy's little dress up act made sense. "You're disguised to look like the victims."

"Yeah, only apparently not good enough. No one's tried to kill me yet," Buffy answered.

"That won't last. Before you know it you'll be dodging bullets," Angel said.

"Actually the killer uses a butcher knife to..."

Angel shook his head, "I'd rather not know." At Buffy's smile he asked, "What?"

"You, Mr. Ex-demon," Buffy said, "Scared of a little blood."

"I've been away from the stuff for a while now and I don't want to go back," he told her. Silence fell again and Angel was once again the one to break it. "What kind of help do you need?"

Buffy was about to answer when there was a loud knock on the door. They both turned towards the sound and then looked at each other.

"Who..." Buffy began.

"No idea," Angel replied. "But I'd better check."

He opened the door and Faith rushed inside. Not even noticing Buffy she said, "You gotta get out of here. You can hide at my place."

Angel looked at her, "Faith... are you on something?"

"No," she told him. "That Buffy girl that you're so obsessed with, is a cold blooded murderer. I found a case full of photos of her victims in her room."

"You broke into my room!"

Faith turned around and saw Buffy standing there. "Shit," faith gulped, "She's gonna kill us both."

"Willow," Oz asked coming through from the bedroom. "What are you doing?"

Willow looked up from the case notes she was reading. "Faith stole this from Buffy's room. She's a FBI agent."

"Cool."

"She's investigating those murders at the UC Sunnydale campus... undercover," Willow told him excitedly. "I can't wait to tell Giles all about this."

"Uh... Maybe she doesn't want you tell," Oz said.

"Why?"

Oz shrugged, "She didn't tell anyone."

"*Undercover*," Willow replied, "She couldn't tell."

"Okay."

Willow bounced up and down excitedly, "I can't wait until it's light out. Giles is gonna flip."

"I'm not going to kill you," Buffy said tiredly. "I may turn you over to the cops for breaking into *my* room though."

Faith stared at her nemesis, "Great. Then you can go down for murder."

"Murder?" Buffy asked.

"Those photos in your room... of *your* victims."

Buffy laughed, "You're an idiot. That was the case file you were looking at."

Faith looked confused, "Case file?"

Angel butted into the conversation. "Buffy is working on the case undercover," he told Faith.

"Shit," Faith said. "So you're not evil?"

"Nope."

"So I can't kill you?"

"Nope," Buffy said again.

"Damn," Faith grumbled. "I should've listened to Willow."

"Willow?" Angel asked curiously.

"She told me that Buffy probably wasn't a killer..."

"Willow read my case file?" Buffy asked. At Faith's nod, she continued, "I am in *so* much trouble."

Angel put his hand on her shoulder, "It'll be okay. You were going to have to explain it all sometime anyway."

Buffy shook her head, "Explaining it is one thing... but the case file contains stuff *no one* but *me* is supposed to know. And now Willow knows."

"And probably Oz," Faith added smirking.

"I am *so* fired."

Part 9

Twenty minutes later Buffy entered the lobby of her dorm. She'd left Angel and that psycho he was dating fighting over whether she was justified breaking into Buffy's dorm room and sharing the information with Willow. Buffy didn't actually care, all she wanted to do was go to sleep and wake up to find that she was still in Washington and this case had never happened. She made it to her door and was about to go inside when someone tapped her on the shoulder, causing Buffy to scream.

"Sorry," her annoying neighbor said, "I was worried about you."

"Why?"

"All those murders," Jemmie replied. "You are a brunette."

Buffy put on a tired smile, "Thanks. I'm okay though."

"Hot date?"

"Discussing an assignment with a professor," Buffy told her. It wasn't technically a lie.

"Did he hit on you?" she asked hungry for gossip.

Buffy shook her head, "Nope."

"Darn," Jemmie mumbled. "See you later."

Buffy watched her go into her room and then quickly followed suit. In a way it was creepy being here after she knew someone had been fondling her things... her very few things. It reminded her of the time her apartment in DC got robbed and she'd spent the week on Dave and his wife Judy's couch, afraid to return home. Buffy checked to make sure that the psycho hadn't helped herself to anything else and then went to bed, hoping to get at least some sleep before she had to go to class.

Early the next morning Rupert Giles was awoken by the telephone. Grumbling about inconsiderate people he answered it, knowing that it would most probably be Willow. She always called him in the morning and always woke him up. It didn't seem to occur to her that he was old and needed lots of sleep. Not that he ever got any with three young children running around the house.

"Hello?"

"Giles, it's Willow," a perky voice came down the line.

Giles sighed, "Yes."

"You won't believe it," she told him, "Angel was right. That girl is Buffy."

"What?" Giles said in disbelief.

"She's an FBI agent," Willow babbled on.

"She was undercover," Giles murmured to himself. It explained a lot of things, like why she was disguised.

"Still is."

Giles was confused, "If she's still undercover... how do you know?"

Willow was silent for a moment. "Faith... sorta..."

Giles sighed, "Faith broke into Buffy's room and stole something that explained all this."

"Yeah," Willow admitted.

Giles sighed again and wondered why they seemed to get into more trouble as they got older instead of less. "Isn't it dangerous for too many people to know Buffy's cover?" he asked her.

"Yeah."

"How many people know?"

"Me, Oz and Faith," Willow answered cautiously.

"Willow," Giles said warningly, he knew she wasn't telling the whole truth.

"Angel most probably, Faith was going over there. And I told Xander and Anya," Willow admitted.

"I suppose I'll tell Jenny," Giles admitted trying to stem Willow's flow of guilt.

Willow was silent for a second and then she asked, "Do you really think Buffy might be in danger because of what I did?"

"No," Giles replied, "Faith is the one who did it. Don't worry as soon as I get the kids ready for school and see Jenny off to work I'll come over and we'll talk about it."

"Okay and thanks Giles," Willow said hanging up.

Giles hung up his end and sighed for the millionth time. He wondered how he was going to be able to help fix this situation that his impetuous ex-slayer had gotten them all into.

Willow had barely hung up when there was a loud banging noise coming from the front door. Willow answered it and was practically tossed out of the way when Faith barged into the house. She was upset again and Willow could only hope that she hadn't done something that she would regret some time down the track.

"What's wrong?" Willow asked her.

Faith looked at her and Willow could see that she'd been crying. For as long as she'd known her, she'd never seen Faith cry and the vision was oddly disturbing.

"She was there."

Willow was slightly confused, "Who was where and when?"

Faith took a deep breath, "Buffy was at Angel's last night."

"Were they... uh..."

"No," Faith said wringing her hands together. "But they looked all buddy-like."

Willow went over to her friend, "Maybe that's all they are."

"Oh please," Faith scoffed. "Angel was looking at her like she was his next meal."

"How was she looking at him?" Willow asked.

Faith shook her head, "I don't know." Faith suddenly threw her arms around the shocked redhead. "I love him and he loves her. Even if she doesn't feel the same way about him, I'm gonna be second choice. I don't think I could live like that," she sobbed.

Willow wasn't sure what to do, so she hugged Faith back and whispered that everything was going to be okay. When the truth was she had no idea if anything was going to be okay ever again.

Angel was relived when class was finally over. He knew that he'd pretty much made a giant ass of himself during the lecture by stumbling over the familiar material and mispronouncing almost every demon name, including the one that had been his for almost two centuries. When he'd finally thought that every student had gone he looked up to see Buffy standing there.

"Rough hour?" she teased.

"Sure you can laugh," he told her, "You didn't mispronounce your own name."

Buffy put her hand on top of his, "Every one has an off day once and a while... even someone as old as you."

"Ha-ha," he replied sarcastically. He wondered what her reaction would be if he told her exactly why he was having an off day. If he told her that the reason he'd made so many mistakes was because every time he'd looked up at the class he'd seen her and his dreams from the night before came back to haunt him. His very erotic dreams, about things he hoped that he'd get the chance to do with her sometime in the very *near* future.

"Aren't you gonna ask me what I want?" she asked a moment later.

Angel shook the cobwebs from his head, "What?"

"Well, I need to know where to meet you for the big Scooby gang confession thing," Buffy told him.

"Willow's."

Buffy pulled a face, "And that would be where?"

Angel realised what he'd done, "Sorry." He took a slip of paper from his bag and wrote down Willow's address for her. As he handed it to her he said, "Five o'clock."

"Okay, I'll be there at five," she said grabbing the paper and running.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"I have another class," she yelled back.

Neither of them noticed the shadow lurking just outside of the window. The one that had watched their exchange and was no glaring at Buffy's retreating figure with malice. If looks could kill Buffy wouldn't have stood a chance. The shadow slowly backed away and disappeared down the side of the building.

Part 10

When Buffy's classes were over for the day she slowly headed back to her dorm. Once she was inside her room, she tossed her book bag onto the floor and flopped down exhausted on her lumpy bed. There was still a good two hours until she was due to meet Angel and the others and now with nothing to keep her mind busy, her stomach was tying itself into knots. Buffy was *so* nervous, something inside her wished that she could simply go back to Washington, back to her boring ordinary life and forget Sunnydale existed. Unfortunately fate and a fairly good memory just wouldn't let the place fade away, maybe there was too much unfinished business left there. Buffy sighed and looked at her phone, wishing she could break cover even more than she already had and call Dawn - the one who seemed to know everything, maybe talking to someone close would help put things into perspective.

Before she could decide anything there was a knock at her door. Sighing she stood to answer it knowing that it could only be one person, Jemmie.

"Hey," Jemmie said the instant Buffy opened the door. "Did you get the notes from psych... I missed the class."

"Sure," Buffy said, in a way relieved that the only thing this girl was bothering her about was class work. "I'll get them."

"Thanks. I'll get them back to you tonight," Jemmie told her.

Buffy handed her annoying neighbor the lecture notes. "Tomorrow would be better. I'm busy tonight," Buffy said to her.

"Okay," Jemmie replied. "Have a good time tonight."

"Thanks. Bye," Buffy told her as she pushed her out of the door.

She thought it was weird that her nosy neighbor hadn't grilled her about her plans, but she shook it off. Deciding not to put it off any longer because the anticipation over the meeting would only get worse, she grabbed her jacket and headed off to Willow's house, following the directions given to her by Angel.

Meanwhile at Willow's the Scooby gang was deep in discussion over Buffy and her sudden re-emergence. Xander was definitely the most vocal, next to Faith.

"Why should we help her? She ditched us remember?" Xander repeated for the fiftieth time since Angel had announced Buffy was back and would be turning up for the meeting.

"Xander," Giles said. "I'm sure she has a good reason." Then he turned to Angel, "She does, doesn't she?"

Angel nodded, "Yeah."

Xander was looking decidedly pale, "Then why didn't she contact us before?"

"Yeah Angel. Why did your precious Buffy ignore you all?" Faith joined in nastily.

Angel sighed, "She did."

"What?" Xander, Giles and Jenny chorused almost comically. In Xander's case his 'what' was less pronounced than Giles and Jenny's.

Angel said, "She wrote."

Giles shook his head, "No. I never..."

"I did," Willow spoke up.

"Huh?" Xander said in sort of a panic.

Willow smiled, "Buffy and I wrote to each other."

"Well... uh..." Giles was cut off by the doorbell ringing.

"She's early," Angel said as he got up to answer the door. He took in a quick sweep of the room and noticed everyone else was frozen in place and headed through to let Buffy inside.

It didn't take Buffy long to find Willow's house, it was in fact only a couple of blocks from where she and Dawn had once lived with their mother. Not that she was tempted to drop in on Joyce and visit her, especially after her emotional abandonment of them. Everyone said a mother's love knows no bounds, but Joyce's couldn't seem to stretch across a continent. Buffy couldn't actually believe that she'd stood out front for five minutes, just remembering the good times - mostly that consisted of her and Dawn left there alone together, that was probably why even now they were so close. After her brief trip down memory lane Buffy hurried away towards Willow's desperate to put some more space between herself and the past, unfortunately she was running straight towards a fairly large chunk of it. She rang the doorbell and waited for someone to answer the door and she had to admit she was relieve when Angel answered it and not one of the others. If say Giles had answered she wasn't sure she wouldn't have run away from everything, the case and the past. It was all piling up on her and she felt like she was carrying the weight of the world on her tiny shoulders.

"Hi," he said ushering her inside. "Are you okay? You look... tired."

"I am," was all she said as she walked past him and into the house.

Angel took her arm and started off in a particular direction, "It's this way."

Buffy allowed herself to be led towards the place that she least of all wanted to be in this entire world.

Part 11

Buffy had been unsure about what kind of scene awaited her when she'd finally meet up with the Scoobies once again, however she hadn't expected a tension-filled silence. Ever since she had entered the room minutes earlier she and her old friends had been staring at each other unsure about what to do or say. It was unnerving to say the least. Suddenly the silence and tension were broken when Willow jumped out of her seat and rushed at Buffy, enveloping her in a hug.

"Buffy," Willow said hugging her tighter, "I'm so glad you're back."

Buffy wanted to hug her back but she was still uncertain of her own feelings about being back in Sunnydale. Instead she simply allowed Willow to hug her without doing or saying anything in return.

Willow let go and stepped back, "How can we help you?"

"Not so fast, Wils," Xander interrupted rudely. "I don't think we should help at all."

"Me either," Faith added nastily, still smarting over being dumped.

"Why not?" Angel asked Xander who was refusing to make eye-contact with him or Buffy.

"Well... it's an FBI investigation. They should handle it," Xander replied.

Buffy spoke for the first time, "They left the case in the hands of the locals and me. Unfortunately the locals don't happen to know I'm here... the bureau never told them. I can't ask them for help, even if I wanted too."

"Why didn't the FBI tell anyone you were here?" Giles asked curiously.

Buffy simply shrugged, "No idea. Probably the same reason they ditched me here with no backup."

Angel looked at her strangely, "Where's that guy you were with?"

"They recalled him. I'm to call the LA office if I need anything," Buffy replied calmly.

"LA's two hours away at least. How could they do that?" Angel raged.

Buffy shrugged, "Their the FBI. They can do whatever they like."

Giles decided to butt in, he could see Angel was about to begin a fight with Buffy over her chosen career and thought it was time to get the conversation back on track.

"Tell us about the case," Giles said cutting Angel's retort off.

"GILES," Xander whined loudly.

Giles looked at the young man, "I did agree to help, Xander. I just think we should listen to Buffy before we make up our minds."

"Fine," Xander grumbled as he began to sulk.

"This could take awhile," Buffy reminded Giles and the others.

Giles nodded, "That's fine."

"Okay," Buffy replied as she began to tell them all she knew, minus the confidential stuff, about the campus murders.

The girl walked into the darkened woods. She was unconcerned about any danger and continued on way past where the marked path ended towards a cavern hidden by the dense brush. She entered the cavern and spoke.

"Mother?"

A sudden whoosh of air startled her momentarily, until she realised it signaled the arrival of her mother's henchman. He was from another dimension, made up of the shadows of fear and was supremely loyal to her mother. The girl surmised her mother found her victims that way.

"Child," a voice replied, scaring her from her thoughts.

"Mother..."

"Do not speak," her mother's voice boomed and echoed throughout the cavern. "I will not listen to your foolishness."

"It isn't foolishness. I refuse to marry him," she said strongly. "He is no longer a demon, but a mere *ordinary* Human."

Her mother laughed, "That is easily fixed. He will once again be the vampire he once was... and he will join with our family as he promised more than a century ago."

"It was the demon's and not the soul's will. You can't do this," she cried.

"And you have spent too much time among them. You are starting to pick up their frailties."

She stamped her foot in tantrum, "It's not fair."

"Be gone before I lose my temper with you," her mother ordered turning her attention to the henchmen. "Did you find anything?"

"He is with a new woman... different to the other ones," the shadow replied obediently.

"Different how?"

"She's a slayer."

"And that's all I know," Buffy finally finished.

The gang didn't quite know what to make of what Buffy had told them. Some of what had happened had seemed demonic and other aspects were more like what a Human killer would do. It was confusing.

"I still say it was a Human," Xander said stubbornly.

"If it was a Human," Willow added sensibly, "Why would the police say it was monsters?"

Faith shook her head, "They didn't say it was. Two rookies out on night patrol said it was."

"So it could've been anything," Buffy replied. "It doesn't conclusively prove if the killer is demonic or Human."

"Don't worry Buffy," Willow told her, "We'll help you figure it out."

"Thanks," Buffy mumbled.

Xander became indignant, "I never agreed to help."

"Me either," Faith added.

"You don't have too. I want to help," Willow replied.

"So do I," Giles and Jenny said at the same time.

"Same here," Angel replied squeezing Buffy's hand.

Buffy quickly moved her hand and said, "I appreciate it."

Xander stood up with Anya following, "This is bullshit and if you want to help *her* with it. You can do it without Anya and me."

"Me either," Faith quickly added.

Xander stormed out followed quickly by his wife, Anya and Faith.

"It's been real," Faith said as she slammed the door.

"What bug crawled up their asses?" Buffy asked stunned at Xander's reaction. She didn't know either Anya or Faith and hadn't counted on their help, but Xander had been one of her best friends and she hadn't even gotten a hello out of him.

Everyone that remained shrugged except Oz, who just sat their looking thoughtful for a moment. Then he spoke, "Xander feels guilty for something and is dealing by taking his anger out on Buffy."

Angel stood up with a realization, "My letters."

"Huh?" Buffy said confused. First Oz had gone all shrink-like on her and now Angel was babbling, things were definitely not the same.

"Xander stole the letters you wrote to me," Angel told her.

Buffy looked at him doubtfully, "I know Xander hated you and all, but isn't that a stretch? I mean... why?"

"It's more likely that Xander did get Buffy's letters and just didn't answer them. Now he feels guilty about it," Willow said. "He was awfully hurt when you left, Buffy."

Buffy nodded, "I can understand it. Even mom wouldn't talk to Dawn or me and that hurt like hell."

"I still say Xander stole them," Angel butted in stubbornly.

Willow looked at her ex-vampire friend, "Angel. Xander and you are friends... even back then you were beginning to become so. He wouldn't have done it."

"I hate to say this, but Willow is correct," Giles said.

"He wouldn't have taken them, he would've just bitched about them," Jenny told Angel.

Angel sighed, "You're probably right. But then what happened to them."

Everyone just had a blank look on their faces.

"I am going to find out," Angel said seething with anger.

"Fine," Giles said, "But when Buffy's case is over."

Angel sighed again and tried to reign in his anger, "Fine."

They all looked at each other and then split up to do research on Buffy's problem, before another murder was committed and a innocent lost their life.

Part 12

They took a small break after a few hours and while Angel, Oz, Jenny and Giles discussed what each had found, Willow used the opportunity to talk to Buffy. Unfortunately it wasn't as easy as she'd hoped to start a conversation with this older Buffy, gone completely was the happy-go-lucky teenager, replaced completely by a serious minded adult. One whom Willow didn't know and if Buffy had her way Willow would never get to know. After trying to engage her in several topics with no success, Willow tried the one she figured was the one to get Buffy to talk.

"What do you think about Angel being Human?"

Buffy sighed, knowing she'd never get Willow to shut if she didn't speak back. "Good for him," Buffy said unemotionally.

"Doesn't it make you wanna just throw him to the ground and jump him?" Willow asked. She was desperate to see some spark of the girl she once knew.

Buffy turned to her and said, "Does Oz know about your unhealthy attraction to Angel?"

Willow shook her head, "I give up." She got up and walked over to the others.

Buffy just sat there going over the book she'd been looking at for the past few hours. She felt rotten about how she was treating everyone, but she just didn't know how to bridge the gap between them all and she wasn't used to not being able to do something. Sighing she pushed her feelings aside and concentrated on her duty.

A slayer. The mother was still seething. How dare Angelus or whatever he was calling himself these days, insult her family this way. He and that sire of his had made a deal with her family, their help in exchange for Angelus wedding her eldest daughter when she came of age. Her daughter was now of age, but he had become weak - Human. She needed him away from other girls, she needed him demonic and she needed him to complete the bargain he had made. Without it she and her family were helpless, ripe for being destroyed. No sacrifice was too great, even the deaths of innocents, if it meant protecting her linage from destruction. And if that *slayer* got in the way, then the council would soon be calling a girl.

It was nearly seven when she left Willow's house the next morning, they'd been researching all night with no luck. Buffy had decided to call Wesley her old watcher and friend when she got back to the dorm, to see if he could find anything on this - if it was demonic, there was still a big question about that. She'd only taken a few steps when something grabbed her from behind. Acting on her instinct she grabbed the offender's hand and judo tossed him to the ground, jumping on top of the offender and pointing a stake at his heart.

"Fuck!" Angel said from his position on the ground underneath Buffy. "Do you do this to everyone?"

"Only the one's who sneak up on me," she replied getting to her feet. "Is there a reason you're sneaking up on me?"

Angel climbed to his feet, "I thought we could walk part of the way home together. You know to discuss the case."

"Sure, but there's not much to discuss," she said as she took off walking in the direction of the campus.

Angel caught up with her and fell into step beside her. "Well," he said, "Maybe we could talk about you?"

"I'm not very interesting."

Angel tried again, "We could talk about us."

Buffy stopped walking, "There is no *us*."

"There used to be."

"Over a decade ago," Buffy told him. "I'm not that girl anymore and you are certainly not that guy."

"How do you know?" Angel asked her.

Buffy just looked at the ground, "Everything and everyone changes. For example, I'm no longer that shallow little airhead I was in high school."
 

"You were never an airhead," he told her.

Buffy just shook her head, "Yes I was. Maybe you just didn't know me as well as you thought."

Angel turned and walked away, he called over his shoulder, "Maybe you didn't know yourself."

Buffy just stood there glaring at his retreating form. How dare he say she didn't know herself, she couldn't help but know herself considering that after the move she had only two friends; herself and Dawn. She turned around and found herself looking into another pair of eyes, eyes she hadn't seen in a decade either.

"Buffy?"

"Mom."

Part 13

"Is it really you?" Joyce asked in amazement. She could hardly believe Buffy was standing right in front of her after all this time of silence, most of which was her own fault.

"Yeah," Buffy said. She was shocked to find herself standing outside her old house. Why couldn't Angel have picked the front of Willow's house to have the damn argument, then she wouldn't have to deal with her mother. She was quite happy repressing all feelings associated with Joyce.

"W-what are you doing here?"

Buffy wasn't sure what to say, she couldn't blurt out the truth and so she said the first thing that popped into her head. "Visiting. You know Willow lives near here."

"Oh," Joyce answered. She knew it was insane but she had been hoping that she'd come to see her, then again why should she want to. For all intents and purposes she had abandoned Buffy and Dawn when Hank gained custody, it had seemed the best thing to do. Now she wasn't so sure she'd made the right decision, Buffy was looking at her as though she were a bug that she'd like to squash.

A silence descended upon the pair, neither knowing what to do or say to the other. A decade of silence had seemed to build an impenetrable gap between them. They just stood there for a moment and until one of them finally spoke.

"Would you like to come inside..." Joyce said cautiously. "We could have some coffee."

Buffy really wanted to say no, be it her vindictive nature or because she didn't want to get hurt again she wasn't sure. But there was just something in Joyce's eyes that made Buffy's resolve weaken and she found herself agreeing to go in, even though she was already hyped up on caffeine from the all-night research session.

"Good," Joyce told her as they headed inside.

Ten minutes later Buffy found herself sitting across from her mother in an uncomfortable silence, wishing she'd said no to going inside. A swarm of painful memories came floating to the surface and the hurt began all over again, causing doubt in Buffy at her abilities to get over and through things. If she could still feel the pain so fresh over her mother then maybe her behavior towards Angel was some sort of defense mechanism. She pushed those thoughts aside and concentrated on drinking her cup of coffee as quickly as possible so she could escape.

"So..." Joyce began trying to break the silence. "How is Dawn doing?"

{Why don't you just pick up the damn phone and ask her} Buffy thought, but said out loud, "Fine."

"Good."

Buffy knew she had to get out of there, she drained her cup and stood up. "I'd better go," she said quickly turning to leave.

"Buffy?" Joyce yelled, causing Buffy to stop. "Isn't there anything I can do to..."

"To what? Make up the fact that you gave Dawn and I away. That all we had was each other while dad played Mr. Big-shot single parent. You can't," Buffy told her rushing out of the house and off somewhere away from everyone she knew.

Joyce just stood there wondering why she'd ever been stupid enough to let Hank take their children without a fight.

Less than two hours later Angel surveyed his class and found them one very important student down. Why wasn't Buffy in class? If he could drag his butt out of bed with only an hour's sleep to teach the damn thing at least she could do was turn up. Unless she was avoiding him because of the fight... the old Buffy wouldn't have, but who knew about the new one. He got on with the class, keeping an eye out for her in case she was running late. She didn't come and after class a worried Angel rushed to his office to call the others, hoping that she'd gone to see one of them instead.

Willow was abruptly woken by a shrill sound of her phone ringing, shortly after she'd finally managed to get to bed and fall asleep. Reaching over Oz, the guy who could sleep through an earthquake, she grabbed the receiver.

"Hello?" she groggily.

"Willow, it's Angel."

Willow rolled her tired eyes, "What now?"

"Buffy's missing." When Willow didn't answer he added, "Say something!"

Willow sighed, "Let me guess she didn't show up for class and now you're paranoid. Did you even bother to check her dorm room?"

"No."

"Well check it," Willow replied, "She's probably sleeping, which by the way is something I would also like to do."

"Sorry," Angel muttered hanging up.

Willow hung up her end and fell back to sleep, all thoughts of Buffy and Angel's call danced out of her head as her dreams took over.

Part 14

Buffy just sat there on the hill overlooking Sunnydale. She didn't know why she was there, just that she wasn't quite ready yet to go back to reality or her nice counterfeit version of it. All she wanted was some breathing space and a moment in time to figure out what was not right with her and why she couldn't just do the damn job quickly and  then leave this town and forget that it ever existed. Regrettably that was one thing that she'd never actually been able to do. Even when she'd persuaded herself that she'd put it all behind her, it had still been there in the back of her mind influencing her every move.

If only she hadn't run into Joyce. She could happily deal with everyone else, with maybe one or two exceptions, but her mother was somebody she'd never wanted to even look at yet again. Neither she nor Dawn had been at their most stable after the move and their mother's choice to take no notice of their existence hadn't helped. Both of them had spent nearly a decade in psychotherapy and Dawn was obsessed with the idea that she'd never marry or have children in case she turned out like Joyce.

Sighing, she stood up and took a quick look over the entire town, with any luck this would be the last time she would have to see it. With a bit of luck Giles and Willow had come up with the damn answers to this case and she could get the hell out of there and back to her life in Washington, far away from anything or anyone that had ever caused her pain.

She simply turned away from the town and headed off on the long walk back to the college.

Angel hung round his office for awhile, trying to do a little of the paperwork that had been piling up ever since Buffy's appearance. He knew it was crazy - hell it had been crazy a decade ago - but he knew she was the one born for him and nothing was ever going to change his mind about that, even her. Giving up on the work he got up and paced his tiny office, he knew he just couldn't go tearing off to the student dorms and kick her door down (no matter how much he wanted too), he was going to have to wait for her to turn up. If she did - after all there was a killer out there butchering girls who looked exactly as Buffy did now. Panicking himself he decided to go out and patrol the campus, maybe he'd get lucky and find Buffy while he was at it and finally be able to calm himself down.

Buffy had barely made it back onto the campus grounds before she heard a scream and took off towards it. Part of her was hoping it was the killer so she could end it once and for all, but when she got there she found that it was just a random vampire and that someone - namely Angel - was already dealing with it.

When he was done, she spoke, "Don't you have papers to grade, or something?"

At the sound of her voice Angel spun around, "Bu... Beth."

"Nice catch," she told him. "What are you doing?"

"Patrol."

"Isn't that your *girlfriend's* job?"

Angel sighed, it appeared she was still pissed at him. "You know I don't have a girlfriend," he muttered.

"If you say so."

Angel knew he was close to losing his temper with her. He had been so worried about her all day and when he finally found her, she gave him attitude. How ungrateful could she get?

"Where were you?" he asked changing the topic.

"Having a charming chat with my so-called mother," Buffy responded her eyes flashing with repressed anger. Angel just stared and she continued, "It's all your fault.

"How?" Angel asked her.

"If you hadn't of picked that stupid fight..."

"You picked the fight," he replied.

Buffy shook her head, "It was you."

"What are you in the fifth grade? Take some responsibility for your own actions."

Buffy looked at him the anger burning out of her eyes, "You're right."

"I am?" Angel asked wondering what twisted thing she was up to now.

"Sure... I mean it's absolutely *my* fault that my mom is a giant bitca and that I was stupid enough to actually return to this hell-hole."

"Buff..."

"And it's totally *my* fault that I was stupid enough to ever fall for you... you know you're like a big jerk, right?"

Angel would've been offended by her statements if he hadn't spotted the tears welling up her eyes. On impulse he reached out and pulled her into his arms and was shocked when she came willingly. He didn't try anything, he simply let her get it out of her system and while he was doing that he suddenly realised that there was still a hell of a lot of the old Buffy still there beneath the surface - and it was starting to come on out.

Part 15

Buffy wasn't sure exactly how she got there, but she found herself in Angel's apartment house - sitting on his settee and examining him as he tinkered all-around his minuscule kitchen, seemingly making coffee. She closed her eyes once yet again and heaved a sigh over the bizarre circumstances she had found herself in. Here she was a trained FBI agent, a grown woman - just a few years shy of the big three-o and less than a half hour prior she had been broken down completely - tears and all and this all happened on her ex-boyfriend's shoulder, no less.

She managed to open up her eyes as Angel came within reach of her and handed her a cup of coffee. Buffy took it from him appreciatively and looked intently into the deep, dark, rich liquid - an apparent form of escape looking at Angel and his soulful, all too seeing eyes. After a split second she ventured a speedy look and confirmed her suspicions, that Angel was gazing directly at her and wordlessly waited for her to speak, regarding what had happened beforehand.

"I'm sorry I cried all over you," she at long last muttered, needing to shatter the silence with something.

"Why?" Angel asked. "It was the first time I got a glimpse of the old Buffy."

"Who? The whiney, selfish, spoiled brat," Buffy answered back. "Calm down Angel, it wasn't some sort of Buffy reversion. It was merely an emotional overload, brought on by the trauma of confronting the bitch who calls herself my mother."

Angel didn't express anything in reply, he just sat there sipping his own drink. His whole body language though screamed at her that he didn't believe a word that she was saying.

Buffy without explanation felt the necessity to bolster her own reasoning, "It's true! Why would I want to be that emotionally immature little bitch again?"

"If that's how you feel," Angel told her as he set his coffee cup down and lounged back in his armchair.

Buffy just stared into her own cooling drink and tried to temper down her anger. How dare *he* not believe her. It wasn't like she was still a silly, idiotic teenager who didn't know her own mind and heart. She was a mature woman and was perfectly capable of knowing what was wrong with herself.

Unexpectedly Angel spoke, "Look, I know that we don't know each other anymore - maybe we never did. I'd just like to think that we could now somehow be friends and that you might feel comfortable enough to confide in me..."

"Why on earth would you want to be my friend?"

Angel sighed, wondering if she could be any more stubborn. Had she always been like this and he'd simply turned a blind eye to the fault, or was this a recent development? The more he saw and learned, the more he wanted to get to know her once more.

"I just figured that while you were here, you might be able to use one," Angel replied smiling at her.

Buffy looked at him suspiciously, "And you of course have *no* ulterior motive?"

"Well..." Angel said a twinkle appearing in his eyes. "They do say that friends always make the best lovers."

Buffy rolled her eyes, stood up and grabbed her stuff, "Dream on not-so-Deadboy."

Angel gazed at her silently as she left his apartment house and then his smile grew even brighter. He was certain that one day soon he was going to make her take back those words she had said, but until then he was going to take her advice and dream about her and all the things he was going to finally get to do with her.

Buffy had only just returned to her dorm room when the phone rang. Ignoring it she marched across the tiny room and threw her jacket into her closet and then she flopped down on the lumpy single bed. She was determined not to answer the damn phone, because she was certain that it was Angel checking up on her and she just didn't want to talk to him. After a few minutes of incessant ringing, she snapped up the receiver.

"Fuck off."

"Real nice Summers," Dave Maxwell's voice came down the line surprising her.

"Dave?"

A laugh sounded at the other end, "Who else would wanna call you, huh?"

"Why are you calling?" she asked suspiciously. She hadn't heard a word from him in at least two days - since his return to Washington and now suddenly out of the blue her was calling her.

"We'll get to that, but first..." Dave said, "Who did you think was calling?"

"No one."

"Summers, you are just *so* full of crap. Now tell me or I'll go ask your sister who you would want to avoid out there in California," Dave threatened.

Sighing she answered, but only because Dawn would somehow get a hold of her and nag her until she spilled her guts, "Angel."

"Angel? As in loony, eavesdropping, I know who you really are, ex-boyfriend, Angel?"

"Yep."

"Jeez, I guess that means I'll have to get you a new nickname - since I won't be able to call you special agent nun anymore."

"Shut up," she said.

Suddenly the laughing stopped and Dave said, "How is everything?"

Buffy went silent at the unexpected change in topic and her mind slipped back into suspicious mode. Why was he calling? Was he risking her cover because he was worried, or for a more sinister reason?

"Buffy?"

"Everything's fine," she replied. "Why? Did Director Jackson suddenly grow a conscience and get worried about little ol' me?"

"They don't know I'm calling. I found something out this morning and I think you need to know about it."

Buffy tensed up, "What?"

"I was waiting for Parks to call me in for a debriefing and well he had some people in there before me. The director and... some British guy called Travis or something like that..."

"Travers?" she asked holding her breath.

"Yeah... that's it. Do you know him?"

"Unfortunately."

"They were discussing you and how they didn't expect you to survive this assignment - that's why they left you no back up. Parks looked really uptight when they said that," Dave told her.

Buffy believed what he was saying without a doubt, "Thanks for eavesdropping."

"Buffy, your my best friend. I had to eavesdrop on them."

"I know."

Dave sighed, "I emailed you a few extra case notes and such. I don't know if it will help, but..."

"Okay."

"Just be careful, Buff. I have a bad feeling about this case," he said.

"I will," she promised him. "See ya."

"Bye."

Buffy hung up the phone and lay back on her bed. She was surprised, but not overly shocked by what Dave had told her. If Travers and the council were involved then whatever was going on was definitely demon related. However she wasn't entirely comfortable that not only was the Watcher's Council in bed with the FBI, but also had enough clout with them to put her on this dangerous assignment with absolutely no back up.

Buffy couldn't sleep, her mind kept going over and over the case notes, the details and all the things Dave had told her. There was just something about this case that didn't make any sense. The murders looked more like a human had done it, than a demon kill - hell, there was even a damn murder weapon and most demons she had run into didn't bother with using a knife when they could use their claws. Then there was the witness descriptions - hell even some of the police descriptions - the killer was obviously supernatural.

She climbed off of the uncomfortable bed and walked over to the window. A movement down below caught her eyes and when she looked closer it was her annoying neighbor Jemmie. Since she seemed to be wearing old, shabby clothes, Buffy figured she hadn't been at one of the campus parties that went on every Friday night. Also Jemmie's lack of books proved she hadn't been studying in the library.

Shaking her head she moved away from the window. What was she thinking? Jemmie may be an annoying, perky bitch, but a murder suspect? Next thing she'd be suspecting Willow and Giles. Flopping back onto the bed, she tried to switch her mind off, or at the very least switch the topic it was obsessing on - move onto something much more entertaining. The only problem with that was that every fantasy guy she could conjure up suddenly looked a hell of a lot like another annoying person, Angel. Sighing, she pulled the pillow up over her head and wished she'd been smart enough to stay in Washington.

Part 16

The subsequent morning Buffy once again blew off her classes, but this time as an alternative to running off someplace isolated to feel sorry for herself, she headed off to Caritas in the anticipation that she possibly would get the hosts outlook on what was going on with the case; especially given that she - and the others - were all still coming up blank. Astoundingly enough the tiny karaoke bar was not only open, but she found it still overflowing with life - demon life, but life none the less. She took a seat at the bar and watched as the host worked the area; ostensibly stopping to chitchat with every distinct demon in the damn space.

As the minutes ticked by she grew more and more impatient for her turn, ultimately - when she was on her fourth diet coke - he sauntered over and sat next to her. For a small amount of seconds Buffy permitted the notion of getting up and walking out on the host penetrate her brain, but as per usual she stuck it out and did her duty - the only thing the watcher's council had ever drummed into her and that she had agreed with, duty above all else.

"Hey sweet-cheeks," the host finally spoke. "What are you doing here? And so early in the morning."

Buffy glanced up at him from her drink, "Just looking for a little guidance."

The host smiled at her and nodded towards the stage, "You know the drill."

"Do I have too?"

"It's kind of a rule," he replied still smiling.

Buffy sighed in acquiescence, "All right. But tell me something first?"

"Anything cutie."

"What's your name? Calling you the host, sort of sucks."

The host blushed an intense scarlet, an peculiar shade alongside the bottle green of his skin. "It's Lorne."

"So? What's wrong with that?"

"Lorne and I'm green..." When he didn't get a reaction, he stared at her intently and realised that she didn't get the association. "So young," he muttered shaking his head. "So what do you want to sing?"

Heaving a sigh, Buffy gulped down the remnants of her diet coke and then smashed her head against the bar, wondering how she every time managed to get herself into the most discomforting circumstances probable.

Angel was unquestionably not a happy guy. Sitting in his cramped office after he had presented his freshman  Supernatural Mythology lecture, he was brooding over a specific woman instead of prepare for his other classes or marking any of the mountain of paperwork sitting on his writing desk. All he had been able to think about was that she had missed his lecture once again and how this time it was probably his own fault - having taken his teasing the night before too far - and offended her. When his office door flew wide open unexpectedly, he glimpsed up and by some means anticipated it to be Buffy and instead found one of his co-workers, Professor Mellor.

"Hey Angel," he said.

"Hi... did you need something?" Angel asked.

Professor Mellor shook his head, "Nope. Just thought I'd let you know that they have found another body."

Angel glanced up, the horror unmistakably written across his attractive appearance. "When? Where? Who?"

"They found her just about an hour back. A couple of undergraduates caught a glimpse of the body as they ambled across an isolated section of the quad. Why do you care?"

Angel didn't answer him, he merely got to his feet and scampered away from the office as swiftly as he could. He was anxious to find out that his qualms were erroneous and that the latest fatality of the Campus Murderer had not been Buffy. He arrived at the quad in record time and endeavored to thrust his way through the horde of students who had congregated in the region of the crime scene.

"Angel," he heard a voice from the crowd yell.

Angel recognized the voice and paused momentarily while Xander caught up to him. "What are you doing here, Xand?"

"I'm supervising the bunch that's remodeling the dean's office. All this hullabaloo was disturbing them, so I came down to look. What's going on?"

Angel took a deep, soothing gulp of air and endeavored to keep his voice steady. "They found another victim."

"So? I mean it's horrendous and all, but... so what?"

"Buffy's missing. She was disguised to look like..." Angel's voice trailed off as he looked towards the crime scene ahead.

Xander gasped in distress. "Jeez, I'm pissed at her and all, but I don't want her dead."

The two men wrestled their way to the border of the assembly just in time to see the body bag being loaded into the waiting coroner's van. Neither in reality saw who the victim was, but none the less a hush descended upon them as the belief of who it could be weighed down on them. Not sure about what else to do, the duo headed over to Willow's to tell the gang what they suspected about the latest victim.

Ten minutes later they pulled up in front of Willow's house and found the troupe - Willow, Giles and Oz - still immersed in the research for Buffy. They both took a seat and gazed at their friends uncertain of how to disclose the news of their qualms. In due course Willow glimpsed up from the tome she was interpreting and stared at them.

"Hey guys. What are you doing here?" she asked them in a confused tone of voice.

Angel and Xander exchanged a apprehensive look and then Xander beckoned for Angel to tell. "Uh... they found a new body at the campus and Buffy..."

"What about Buffy?" Buffy questioned as she ambled into the living room from the kitchen area.

"Buffy!" Xander shrieked, running over to her and pulling her into a tight bear hug.

Buffy was temporarily bewildered, but in due course managed to disentangle herself from Xander's grasp. "What in the hell is going on?"

Xander stared at his childhood friend - truly looked at her - and all of a sudden all of the asinine reasons he was infuriated with her didn't give the impression of being so vital anymore. "They discovered another body and I... we thought..."

"That it was me," Buffy finished for him. "Xand, I'm not quite that easy to get rid of."

Angel on the other hand was monumentality pissed at her, obviously he was also comforted that she was all right. He had just been *so* worried about her and there she now stood right in front of him, right as rain and not even to some extent apologetic.

"I don't know about that - you're easy enough to get rid of while class is on," Angel muttered angrily.

"What did you just say?" Buffy asked glaring at him.

Angel's carriage showed sentiment that his frozen voice didn't, "Where were you this morning? Didn't you think I might be worried?"

"Frankly it didn't cross my mind," she replied just as icily. "Maybe I should inform you of all decisions I make from now on... like say I should ask your permission before going to the damn bathroom..."

"Jeez, be aware of the sexual tension," Xander whispered to a nodding Oz, as they watched the couple fight.

Willow bounded up from her seat and went to intercede before Buffy and Angel drew each other's blood. "Buffy got us some beneficial information at Caritas. She's identified the type of demon responsible."

Angel didn't even acknowledge the wicca, "You blew off my class to go to a *bar*?"

"Yeah and I'll tell you something, it was a hell of a lot more enlightening than one of your *so-called* classes."

Willow simply rolled her eyes at her friends childish disagreement. "The demon is a Jemarah demon."

When Angel heard Willow mention that particular name, he stopped picking at Buffy and gazed at the wicca. "A Jemarah?"

"Yeah."

Angel didn't say another word, he simply walked away from them and out of Willow's home for an unknown destination, leaving a whole bunch of curious and confused people behind.

The gang went immediately back to researching Buffy's lead on the demons liable in part or in whole for the campus murders. With the news of another death, they - plus Xander - felt even more of an necessity about finding and destroying the perpetrator. However it didn't take long for them to determine that none of Giles' research materials contained information on the demons they were seeking.

Since they had nothing else to go on, Willow suggested checking the net for references to the name, Jemarah. Using a special search engine that Willow had designed during her spare time, they found ten matches for the word Jemarah - including one at UC Sunnydale. Clicking on the UC Sunnydale link they found that it was the Christian name of a undergraduate.

"Well..." Willow said. "Who wants to check them out?"

"I will," Buffy volunteered hastily. When the others looked at her she added, "I'm the fake student here. I'm gonna be a hell of a lot less suspicious than any of you."

Xander was to some extent insulted, "Are you saying I couldn't pass for a student?"

"I think you could pass as a skanky construction worker trying to pick up little girls," Buffy teased.

"Brat!" Xander told her, ruffling her hair.

Giles coughed loudly, "If you two don't mind, we are trying to get on with the matter at hand."

"Sorry," Buffy and Xander murmured in unison.

"So what should I do with this?" Willow questioned pointing to the information on the screen.

Buffy sighed, "Print of the name and address of the student... and a class schedule if possible. I'll go and check it out."

Xander checked his watch as Willow handed Buffy the printout. "I need to get back to work," he told them. "Need a lift back to the campus?"

"Thanks Xand," Buffy said gathering her things. "Bye guys."

Buffy and Xander left and then Giles turned to Willow. "What should we do now?"

"Well... there is a few other leads here. We could follow them in case the one Buffy's got isn't what we're looking for."

"Fine," Giles agreed. "What do I need to do?"

Part 17

Buffy convinced Xander to drop her off a few blocks away from the campus, giving him the explanation that it would be better for both of them if they weren't seen together because it may provoke some reservations with the other students. Once Xander had pulled away and was out of sight, she doubled back and headed instantly for Angel's apartment. It wasn't because she wanted to see him - or at least that's what she told herself - or squabble again, she knew that he knew something about the case that he just wasn't telling anyone and there was no way in hell she was going to let him keep it to himself.

When she arrived and pounded on the door there was no answer, but she knew that he was in there and simply taking no notice of her. Realizing he wasn't going to let her inside, she used a trick that they had taught her during her FBI training and picked the simple lock he had protecting all his worldly valuables and himself; letting herself inside his apartment. She wasn't in the least astounded at what she found - Angel was sitting on his couch brooding.

"It's a decade later, you're human and you - in spite of everything - still sit in the dark and brood... unbelievable," Buffy commented as she lounged in his front doorway.

Angel didn't even move a muscle, "Go away, Buffy."

"No... I'm not going anywhere."

Angel at long last raised his head a sufficient amount to look at her, "No?"

Buffy moved away from her location by the front door and stood herself directly in front of him, forcing him to look up at her. "Like I said, I'm not going anyplace. At least not until you tell me the whole lot that you know about Jemarah demons."

"I-I can't," Angel told her, his voice overwrought with sentiment.

"Look Angel, this isn't the point in time for you to be all broody and self-involved," Buffy told him. "There is *so* much more on the line than your precious pride."

Angel looked away from her, "You have no concept regarding what is in actuality on the line here."

"And I won't. Not if you don't tell me."

"I won't," he retorted harshly.

Buffy had no response to his final statement, she merely looked intently at him for a small amount of seconds and then shook her head in abhorrence before walking away from him.

Angel simply sat there brooding after Buffy walked out on him - brooding over his lack of choices, to tell or not to tell. However he knew that if he had told Buffy what he did know about the Jemarah demons, then she'd not only feel duty-bound to save from harm the females on campus but him as well and after it was all over she'd on no account ever speak to him again.

How could he tell her - or any person - about the covenant his demon had made with the Queen of the Jemarah - even Darla, his dear departed sire, had known nothing of it. Of how Angelus had arranged to mate/marry - to bind himself for all of eternity - to the Princess of the Jemarah and secure both power bases through the alliance - to become more powerful than The Master could ever have dreamed. As you would expect the covenant had never been fulfilled, he had in reality gotten his soul back before Angelus could follow through on the proposal and the rest was now history. There was logically a probability that this so-called Jemarah predicament had entirely nothing to do with him, but he had learned - rather agonizingly - that the Hellmouth, whether opened or closed, had a way of making those who lived upon it lives a living nightmare.

Heaving a sigh, Angel ran his fingers throughout his greatly tangled hair and questioned what in the hell he should do. He opened his miserable eyes and peeped at the position where Buffy had stood scarcely a half hour prior and perceived for the first time a slip of paper lying there. Nosiness got the better of him and he picked it up and read what was on it, it was a students name and address along with a class schedule. Angel noted that this individual was in his freshman Supernatural Mythology lecture with Buffy. A number of questions sprung to his chaotic mind. Why was Buffy carrying around this person's details? Was this person a suspect? Maybe this person was just a friend of Buffy's after all they lived in the same dorm... Thinking that Buffy may possibly want his help, he grabbed his things, his coat and then headed out of the door into the night to save from harm the solitary woman to ever attain his heart and soul.

Buffy was badly dejected and moping all by herself up in her dorm room after her altercation with Angel. She hadn't wanted to fight with him or push him until he crack, she simply wanted to help stop innocents from being butchered. Even after all these years of retirement from the slayer gig, she still felt a duty to protect the innocent - probably why she was such a good agent. Reclining back on the lumpy bed she sighed and wished that fate had never conspired against her and forced her to return to Sunnydale, but even as she thought it she knew it wasn't true. She had need to come back, to clear up a lot of unfinished business, so she could move along with her life.

Wrenching herself out of her bad humor, she went to get a hold of the printout that Willow had done for her so that she could check out this student and discovered that it had gone astray. Coming to a decision that the chances were excellent that she had dropped in Angel's apartment house she chose to wait until the next day - to give herself time to get it together - to collect it. Besides what were the chances that another innocent would get butchered after the victim last night? Not much - she hoped anyway - because almost all of the victims were killed at least three nights apart. Buffy was shocked at her own cowardliness, but didn't change her mind.

Picking up her chemistry textbook from her diminutive school desk, she observed the pamphlet for the frat party being hosted at Lowell House. Looking at it intently for a many seconds she decided that in the relevance of catching a killer and making sure that her spineless choice didn't end up getting someone injured, she would grace with her presence the frat party. She was not going to enjoy herself or to see what all the excitement was about because she had never gone to one in her own college days, she told herself - it was simply to protect and serve.

Buffy chose her outfit circumspectly so that she would intermingle in with the wide-ranging female populace of the campus that would be in attendance. She figured that the tight black pants and blood red silk top that exposed her midriff and the cross Angel had once given her, was both dressy and somewhat casual enough for the party. Checking her appearance one last time in the mirror, she heaved a sigh and wondered why she was dim-witted enough to do this, she had on no account been any good at socializing in college - the workload had continuously beleaguered her - and until she had started to date Riley Finn in her junior year, she hadn't done anything but study; but that relationship hadn't lasted very long because they had wanted different things.

Grabbing a smaller purse than the one she typically carried, she transferred her wallet, keys, cell phone, a stake and her most important accessory - her handgun. After checking and re-checking that she had everything she might probably need, she left the virtual protection of her dorm room and ran straight into her infuriating neighbor.

"Hi Beth."

Buffy sighed and then hastily plastered on her phony smile. "Hey."

"So... I guess this means you're going to the party after all?"

Buffy locked her door and glanced at her exceedingly spry neighbor. "It's not like there's anything else to do around here."

"I'm going too. Why don't we walk over there together?"

"Sure," Buffy replied, walking off with the young blond.

A split second later on inside her dorm room, her touchtone phone rang and was answered by the machine. 'Hi, this is Beth. I'm not here, but if you need me for something leave your name and number and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.'

"Buff... it's me, Dave. Look I was worried about you and I'm here in Sunnydale. I'll be at your dorm soon and... uh... I don't know maybe you could pass me off as your nosey older brother or something. I just had to be here - I know it doesn't make any sense, but I really had a really bad feeling about these circumstances. See you soon."

Angel arrived in time to see Buffy - who looked tremendously distracting - leaving the dorm with a young blond girl, one who seemed a little familiar and was probably in one of his classes. As much as he wanted to pursue Buffy and save her from harm, he knew she wouldn't be pleased about it - in actuality she would in all probability kick his ass or shoot him because of it. So as an alternative he strolled coolly into the dorm and proceed to trail the lead he had received from Buffy's printout.

He ascended the flight of stairs up to the third level and began to rummage around for the room he sought after. When he located it, he knocked upon the door and then knocked again and again, but there was no answer. Around ten minutes later he had given up and was about to leave, when he ran into a former student of his - he remembered her only because she spent more time flirting with him than doing her work.

"Hey there," Jodie Darling - a spectacular red-head with abundant assets - said smiling at him predatorily. "Looking for... uh... someone in particular?"

"Actually I am."

Jodie leaned towards him, increasing the view of her assets, "Who?"

"Jemarah..."

"Her!?" Jodie screeched at the top of her lungs. "Why in hell would you... would anyone in their right mind...  want to see that skank?"

Angel just stared at her, "She owes me her major assignment. I'll have to fail her without it and thought she might have it here."

Jodie transformed from a shrew back into a semi-normal young woman. "It's just so great how you care about your students," she told him laying her hand upon his arm.

Angel moved backwards away slightly from her - he still couldn't cope with the amount of female students that thought they could worm their way into his bed. "So, do you know where I might be able to find her?"

"I think the skank went to the frat party over at Lowell House."

"Frat party?"

Jodie smirked at him once more, "Yeah. She and that nerd, Beth - I think that's her name... they just left."

Angel suddenly remembered the girl that Buffy had left with and realised why she had looked so familiar to him. "Thanks," he managed to mumble as he ran off to get to Buffy.

"No need to rush off..." Jodie bellowed, but he was long gone. She stood there for a moment or two longer before saying, "Men" and heading for her own room.

Part 18

Buffy had scarcely left the vicinity of the dormitory when she could feel the vibrations of the exceedingly strident party music - well at least what college students called music these days - and the echo of people having a good time glided across the light wind. The foremost notion that popped into her head - in addition to that of 'what the hell have you just gotten yourself into' - was that if the killer was out tonight and at the party, then he or she would have a hell of a lot of choices of victims. The lawn out the front of the frat house was teaming with students and the actual edifice gave the impression of pulsating from within because of the clamor coming from inside. The noises of music, people chatting and giggling and the clatter of people's feet upon the floor as they danced.

Coming to a complete stop, she began to mutely go to pieces. She had in no way done anything so downright imprudent in years - not ever since the very last time she had been in Sunnydale and had gone to that frat party with Cordelia - and currently there she stood on the precipice of making a colossal blunder. Coming to the decision that it would just be better for every person on campus if she hung about outside she turned towards Jemmie, only instead of telling the blond that she was staying outside she found herself being dragged into the aging building and towards the party.

"Come on, Beth. It won't be that terrible," Jemmie hollered at her above the vociferous level of the music. "In fact it may possibly even be fun."

Giving in Buffy merely permitted herself to be dragged along, but being the mulish individual that she is, she did decline to respond to Jemmie's sprightly observation. She simply kept informing herself that she wasn't there for fun and games or to have a pleasant time, she was there for one reason and one reason only, to thwart an additional innocent from being a target - if she could. Conversely as she was dragged across the threshold, she did commence to question if - at the very least - told someone wherever she was going to be for the evening, regrettably it was simply too late for her to do so at the moment.

"Giles!" Willow bellowed as she hung up the phone. She'd just completed a discussion with one of her Wicca acquaintances whom had spent nearly all of the last few years following a line of investigation on various types of demons.

"What is it?" Giles answered back, glancing up from a facsimile he had received from one of his one-time Watcher's Council allies on what they knew about Jemarah demons.

Willow took a seat on her worn but comfortable couch next to Oz and then looked at Giles, "You will never ever believe what Brandi just told me..."

"What?" Giles interrupted intolerantly. He was psychologically congested as it was, worrying about Buffy and this situation, plus the fact that since Buffy's reemergence he had scarcely seen Jenny or the children.

"Apparently she's discovered several pieces of information regarding a Master vampire and some sort of allegiance made with the Queen of the Jemarah over a century ago."

"So?" Giles pushed with irritation.

"So... the agreement was in no way in reality followed all the way through and rumor has it that the Queen vowed that the arrangement would be followed through no matter what, or there would be death to all those that interfered in its termination," Willow enlightened them. At their vacant, yet confused looks she continued, "The vampire was Angelus."

"Oh My God," Giles whispered in disbelief.

"I guess that explains his walking out," Oz added.

"It explains a hell of a lot more than that," Willow replied.

Giles shook his head, "What are you talking about?"

Willow sighed, "All of the victims have brown hair, around the same height and dressed like major sluts. Sound like anyone we know?"

"Faith."

"Bingo. She's been the one that's stopped the Queen from sealing the deal," Willow answered. "Whoever... or whatever is doing the butchering didn't know who Faith was, just what she sort of looked like."

"And slaughtered a horde of innocent girls who looked similar to her," Giles said in comprehension. "Oh My God, Buffy."

Willow rapidly clued onto what Giles meant, "I'll call her dorm." She got up and rushed across the room to where she had placed the cordless handset, "There's no answer. Just the machine."

"She could be asleep," Oz said.

"We can't take that chance," Giles replied powerfully. "Call Xander and Anya and have them meet us at Buffy's dorm."

"Can't do that, Giles. Xander and Anya are out for the evening remember?" Willow informed him.

"Right... Jenny is taking care of the twins. We're on our own then," Giles said standing up. "We have to warn Buffy that her very life is in danger."

"Okay, let's go."

Angel was tremendously perturbed, he knew that Buffy was someplace within the boundaries of Lowell House and regrettably - at least for him - there was just no earthly way to get to her and warn her about her so-called friend. It wasn't like he could simply walk up to the door and knock. He knew that there was no chance that a bunch of partying students were going to permit a dorky university lecturer inside to spoil their fun. So when you come right down to it, until he heard or saw something dubious he was required to hang around the exterior of the fraternity, veiled in the shadows - a place he no longer felt at ease in.

He was focused on the fraternity building so relentlessly that he did not take notice of the advance of the individual coming up at the rear of him. In fact Angel only become conscious that he was not on his own when a muscular hand clamped down on his shoulder, causing him to shriek in panic.

"Shut up, Angel."

Angel turned around and saw that man that Buffy had been in the hotel room with, her alleged colleague who had forsaken her here in Sunnydale devoid of any aid or support whatsoever. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"I was apprehensive about the circumstances Buff's in. I feel that whatever she is dealing with is more than she can cope with by herself and thought I'd offer her some backing," Dave replied snippily. "After all she's my best friend, as well as partner. I don't want something to happen to her."

"Yeah, I could tell you care," Angel told him sarcastically. "Especially when you packed up your equipment and left her here to perish single-handedly."

Dave glared at Angel, all his dissatisfaction showing, "If I knew for certain that *we* - that is Buffy and I - wouldn't need your help. I'd shoot you right now."

"Just run along home Mr. FBI. Buffy and *I* are dealing with things that are way beyond your inadequate intellectual capacity," Angel sniped back.

"Back off, psycho. I'm here until Buffy tells me to leave."

The two men were so occupied with combating each other that they very nearly missed the shadow that was crawling all along the outer surface of the fraternity house, peeping through the generously proportioned translucent windowpanes evidently searching for something or someone. For a split second Angel hoped that he was imagining the sight, at least until he noticed the astonishing look on Dave's face.

"W-what is t-that?" Dave managed to stutter a split second later.

"A very, very bad thing," Angel told him recognizing with horror unerringly what they were looking at. "Come on, we have to get to Buffy and warn her."

Not knowing what else to do he followed Angel as he ran across the lawned area to the rear entry of the fraternity to try and get to Buffy before whatever the hell that thing was got to her.

Willow, Giles and Oz pounded anxiously upon the door to Buffy's room with no avail, she was obviously not there and they had absolutely no idea where she could be at this time of night. They were making so much noise that a door across the hall opened and a young woman looked out at them.

"Do you mind? I am trying to study for a test," she hissed crossly at them.

Giles disregarded her statement, "Excuse me... Can you tell me if you know where Beth Winters is?"

"She's probably with the rest of the freaks."

"Where would that be?" Willow asked.

The young woman rolled her eyes, "I'd say the freaks would be at that frat party, over at Lowell House."

Giles eyes widened in shock, "A frat party?"

"Yeah, all of the campus morons will be there," she told them. "Now can you all fuck off and let me study?"

Willow butted into the conversation again before Giles had a chance to lecture the younger woman on swearing, "Sure we can."

The girl slammed her door shut and Giles turned to Willow. "How are *we* supposed to find this party?"

"Giles, chill. I went to college here remember? I know here Lowell House is. Plus, if there is a party on, we'll hear it long before we see it," Willow said with a smile.

Giles sighed, "Then lead on."

Buffy had only been at the damn party for a little over an hour and already she was bored out of her skull and exhausted from all the small talk she'd had to make. She had forgotten how much energy it took to socialize with a gathering of strangers and only now recollected why she on no account attended one of her sister's celebrations and stayed at home as an alternative. If she hadn't gotten that funky sensation that habitually complemented a demonic incidence, she would have left after the first ten minutes.

Unfortunately the demon was not cooperating and she'd been waiting and waiting for it to finally show itself. Since patience was not known to be one of her many virtues, the wait was doing nothing to improve her mood which at the moment was like a black cloud of unhappiness spreading throughout the room. Moving over to a windowpane she gazed outside into the night and heaved a small sigh, she couldn't be positive - since it had been a hell of a long time since it happened - but there was a minute element of her that felt that Angel was skulking around somewhere nearby.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed a shadowy figure moving along the outside of the building. Since she had nothing better to do - except dodge the drunken frat boys looking for an easy lay - she decided to check it out, even though it was most likely her own imagination playing a trick on her. However it did not stop her from hoping deep down that if there was something out there it was a bunch of drunk party goers and not a knife wielding maniac demon.

She leisurely made her way towards the back entry of the frat and hope that no one inside had noticed her slipping away through it and followed her into a potentially dangerous situation. Once she was outside in the cold night air, she looked around as much as she could, but she saw nothing out of the ordinary. A moment later she wished that she could take back her last thought as she looked over the lawn and saw two familiar figures running full pelt towards her.

Part 19

Angel ran towards Buffy at a expeditious a pace as he could deal with, hoping that he could reach her before the shadowy figure - a Shadowmock - could lay it's hands upon her. He had one a long time ago, just after he had been turned, saw what a Shadowmock could do to its quarry and even though the demon within him had respected it's intrinsic rancorousness, the soul on no account ever wanted to see that scene again - especially if it happened to Buffy - it made some of the atrocities that he had accomplished as Angelus seem insipid in comparison.

"Buffy!" he yelled. "Get away from there. Go back inside."

Either she didn't hear his words of warning or she was simply being her obdurate self, because she didn't even move an inch from her original position. In fact as he approached her, he noticed that she seemed to be glaring at he and Dave - well, at the very least just him.

He reached her and she flew into a rage, "What in hell do you think you're doing? Get away from here before you blown my cover."

"Your cover at this point is the least of your worries," Angel told her.

"What?"

Dave at long last arrived and joined in the conversation, "There's something out here."

"I know. I saw the thing through the window. Why else would I be out here?"

"Good point," Dave mumbled.

Buffy looked around, but all she saw was darkness and shadow. "So where is this creepy thing that I am supposed to avoid?"

Angel glanced in the region of the fart house,  just as Buffy had and for the first instance since he had received his redemption, he began to wish that he still had some of his old vampiric senses. At least then he would have had no hassle in locating the Shadowmock's hiding place within the nearby shadows.

"Around?" Dave guessed lamely, trying to diffuse the tension that had arisen between the other two.

"Close-by," Angel said almost simultaneously with Dave, staring deeply into the shadows hoping to catch a movement or something from the creature.

Buffy could not help but roll her eyes once more and dragging a hand through her tangled mane of hair, she finally spoke. "Jeez, you two are just *so* full of useful information tonight, aren't you?"

"I may not know everything," Angel's said his voice betraying the gravity of the situation. "But I do know you are to be the Shadowmock's next victim."

"A shadow-what? I thought we were after a Jemarah?"

"We are... Shadowmock's are the servants of the Jemarah Royalty. They do all of their dirty work," Angel informed her.

Dave scrutinized the two of them and kept out of the exchange. Whatever was going on was evidently way over his head, he was merely going to be there to help Buffy - if considered necessary. Then afterwards he was going to get inebriated and cast out what on earth he was going to see, to the remote reaches of his psyche; where they would no longer inconvenience him.

Buffy was quiet for a few moments and then looked into Angel's eyes, "I'm not a target because of my disguise. Am I?"

As they came within reach of the locality where the festivity was being held, Giles stopped mid-step. He was all of a sudden unconfident about what he, Willow and Oz could possibly do subsequently to assist Buffy. After all it was doubtful that he would be able to walk into the frat house and mingle inconspicuously with the students in attendance - he was a fifty-four year old father of three, he would stick out among the teenagers and twenty-something's. He supposed that he could send Willow and Oz in there alone to rummage around for Buffy and tell her what they had discovered and offer help, after all they were much closer in age to the party-goers than he was.

Looking alongside himself, he perceived that Willow and Oz had suspend what they were doing and were watching him attentively, waiting to see what he would tell them to do next. Even after all of these years they still looked to him as their leader and although Giles found it somewhat endearing, it also was a disconcerting contemplation. Fortuitously - or maybe not so fortuitously - they heard what sounded like an disagreement, followed directly by a woman's shriek. Flustered the three of them rushed towards the direction that the sound had come from.

"Buffy... you don't... you can't understand..."

Buffy poked Angel hard in the chest, she was upset, not just because her life and the lives of innocents were in danger. If she was truly honest with herself it was because Angel had kept this from her and it tore at her heart. So she showed anger - her defense mechanism her psychologist told her - and let that be the only emotion that she showed.

"I may not exactly be a genius, but I comprehend that everything about this whole mess leads directly back to you - or at the very least something that you know. Don't you think it's about time that you clued me in?"

Angel sighed in resignation, hadn't he known that he would have to tell her the story when he set off after her. "Okay..."

Before Angel could utter another syllable, the shadows that were surrounding them began to move in an eerie way. Suddenly a part of the shadows lunged at Angel, knocking him to the ground with a resounding thud, as it screeched one word. "No!"

Dave rushed forward to be of assistance to Angel and as an alternative found himself being flung through the air with such a vigor that the oxygen was knocked from his body. And as if that wasn't horrific enough, he landed against the brick superstructure of the fraternity building causing his back and every nerve radiating from it to reverberate with pain.

Buffy resisted the overpowering inclination she had to be of assistance to both Dave and Angel, as an alternative she forced herself to take a step back and try to evaluate her opponent - well to evaluate what she could see of it anyway. It wasn't an unproblematic task, but if she concentrated as relentlessly as she could, then she could just make out the outline of the Shadowmock. As she watched the Shadowmock vanished and she began to back little by little away from the almost total darkness of the shadows, towards the small porch light attached to the back of the frat. Before she even had a chance to make it halfway there, the light disappeared in a dazzling explosion and Buffy screamed.

Willow, Oz and Giles rounded the corner leading to the back of the frat house just in time to see the something fly though the air, courtesy of none other than Faith. It was a shock to them to say the least, Faith was saving Buffy - or at least helping her. It was then that they noticed Angel lying there on the ground and the reason for Faith's cooperation with Buffy became clear, it wasn't to save innocents or help a sister slayer - it was simply for Angel. No one had actually guessed the extent to which faith's feelings for the ex-vampire ran, but the proof was there for them to now see.

The trio stepped back and let the now slayer - Faith - and her retired predecessor do the dirty work and remove the threat. Amazing was the skill and tactics that both girls used to dispatch their foe, some similar from council training and sparring with Angel, but many moves were opposites and yet somehow they complemented each other.

Out of the corner of her eye, Willow observed Angel stir and after a split second of staring at the slayer's fighting together; she saw him crawl little by little, painstakingly across the soft dewy grass to where another man - unknown to her - lay comatose, apparently from taking part in the early stages of the battle.

Making sure that her friend was visibly fine, Willow turned her attention back to the battle and the slayers. It seemed that working together that they were close to bringing their foe to it's knees - if it had knees - and Willow watched as both women executed almost simultaneous judo kicks, both landing on their intended target - their foe's small misshapen head. The blows coming from opposite directions had contorted the face/head area even further before it twisted off like the top on a bottle, even complying by making a noise similar to a pop before it rolled away into the darkness.

Both of the slayer's - retired and otherwise - were sprawled out on the soft grassy area surrounded by a headless corpse which a thick - almost coagulated - black blood poured out, partly soaking into the ground with the rest forming a ooze-filled - yet in the darkness virtually indiscernible - crust on top.

Faith recovered first, climbing slowly to her feet, sluggish as though she had been asleep and had just awoken. She seemed to survey her environment before walking carefully over to her sister slayer and chief rival for the affections of her beloved.

The first thing Buffy saw when opening her eyes was Faith standing over her, she couldn't believe that Faith had better recuperation powers than her; after all they had to be around the same age. "Come to finish the job?" Buffy muttered softly as she closed her eyes once more.

"Actually, I prefer my victims a little more active," Faith answered. She offered the other slayer her hand, "Come on and get up."

Buffy opened her eyes once more and grasped the other slayer's hand, "Don't think this makes us friends or something."

"Like that would ever happen."

"Buffy!"

Hearing her name being called, the former blond turned around and was almost knocked back to the ground by a hyperactive Willow, who enveloped her into a tight bear-hug.

"I'm fine, Wils," Buffy managed to say. "Although I may need to breathe in the future."

"Sorry," Willow replied sheepishly.

"Hey," a masculine voice yelled intruded on their little reunion of sorts. "I think someone needs to get this guy an ambulance."

"Dave!" Buffy said suddenly remembering her fallen partner and best friend. She swiftly ran over to the unconscious man's side, looking up she said, "Wils, would you mind calling 911 for me?"

"I'll call," Willow told her not quite understanding Buffy's relationship to this man, but could tell that they were close.

As Willow headed inside, Buffy gripped onto her partner's hand, praying he would be all right. Not knowing what else to do and letting his natural curiosity for the supernatural get the better of him, Giles wandered over to get a look at the demon that had been defeated with Oz in tow. Angel stayed by Dave's side in an attempt to be there for Buffy and Faith sat next to Angel in a fruitless attempt to wean his attention away from Buffy.

No one noticed that the shadows framing the group were slowly parting, making a safe corridor for something to pass through. In fact they were all so wrapped up in what they were doing that they didn't notice anything until they heard a booming voice come from straight behind them.

"Angelus... what have you done?"

Part 20

The assemblage turned around at the resonance of the booming enunciation and Buffy couldn't help but gasp. The demon/Jemarah standing diametrically in front of the lifeless body of the Shadowmock had to be at least seven feet tall and outweighed her by at least a hundred pounds, however despite her above average height and almost non-existent weight she looked... human.

By the expression on the Queen's face, the unanticipated demise of her devoted servant was not going down well. Buffy was tentative about what she should do next, in fact she wasn't certain that she could do anything next. When she tried to move, she couldn't. All she was fixated on was the Queen. Cursing herself for being silly enough to fall for whatever was going on - she was an FBI agent damn it, she should've known better - and hoping that not everyone in the group was facing the alike predicament, she began to formulate an convoluted escape plan - wishing that it would work. It didn't. Standing there immobile, she prayed that there was some way out of this disaster.

Angel glanced up at the sound of the tremendously thunderous voice and almost stopped breathing from the shock of who's voice it was. Queen Euphony of the Jemarah had not become visible in front of mortals for more than two millennia and evidently her raison d'être for doing so now was more than due to the death of her Shadowmock. A swift glance around established that the others - including both slayers - were spellbound by the Queen's wraithlike exquisiteness, a widespread consequence for the first viewing of the mythical creature.

"What do you want here, Euphony?" Angel asked trying to keep his voice bitter and not to divulge the icy fear that had begun to pool in the deep pit of his stomach.

"Angelus, Angelus, Angelus," Euphony retorted shaking her beautiful head with something akin to disbelief. "You made an treaty with me. No one invalidates an covenant made with me, especially not when it is such a delicate one."

Angel couldn't have faith in what his ears were hearing, sure he had hypothesized that his inadequate covenant had something to do with what was going on; but never that it was the entire motivation behind it. Okay, so for a brief moment or two his ego had considered the idea, but it had been dismissed by his cogent mind as ridiculous.

"I never made any bargain with you, Euphony. That was my demon and he is long gone."

"Demon? Soul? It matters not to me. An agreement is an agreement, you will marry my daughter."

"Like hell I'm marrying him," a voice came from the darkness surrounding them. "He's cute and all, but *so* not my type."

At the reverberation of her daughter's voice, Euphony paled and as a corollary she lost a small amount of her thrall over the group, allowing both Buffy and Faith to pull themselves free of the spell.

"Jemarah Pelagius, you will do as your Queen and mother tells you to do," Euphony told her forcefully. "I did not spend virtually six months ridding the old Hellmouth of Angelus' sluts so that you could defy me."

Faith got an insulted look on her face as it sunk in that she was being called one of Angelus' little sluts, but being the slayer strategist that she was she did not make a move against the Queen in anger - instead she bided her time.

"I won't marry him, mother. I just can't."

"Hell, I don't wanna marry her either," Angel chimed in at the top of his voice.

"Stay out of this Angelus. This is between me and *my* daughter."

"Actually *bitch*," Faith yelled interrupting the Queen's growing tirade. "I believe this situation is between me, B and you."

"Who or what is a B?" Euphony asked curiously.

"I am," Buffy said as she judo kicked Euphony in the back of her fragile head.

Surprisingly Euphony barely flinched from the heavy contact. "Is that all you have little girl?"

"Pretty much," Buffy answered weakly.

The Queen made the mistake of turning her back on Faith as she advanced towards her last attacker. Faith used the opportunity to start an attack of her own, unfortunately he efforts to bring down the Queen were as useful as Buffy's were and she soon gave up - falling to the ground exhaustedly.

Euphony continued to stalk Buffy with a ominous expression plastered across her attractive face, turning it repulsive with odium. Angel saw what was happening and rushed without stopping in to help Buffy by distracting Euphony from her target. To do this he jumped up onto her tall back and clasped his sweat slippery hands around her neck.

"Leave her alone," he told Euphony. "She's nothing to you."

"No she isn't, but unfortunately for her she is obviously something to you," Euphony replied as she flung Angel off of her back with a smooth and graceful motion.

Buffy watched with a mixture of horror and amazement as Angel seemingly flew through the air and then without warning dropped, landing with an almighty thud upon the grassy ground. He lay there limp as a rag doll and Buffy was filled with dread, anger and guilt over his predicament.

"You bitch," she spat out distastefully at the Queen.

"Oh look, the little slayer slut is mad at me," Euphony mocked derisively. "What are you going to do now? Kick me again?"

Buffy spotted her purse lying on the ground only a few feet away were it had fallen during the battle with the Shadowmock. She remembered the one thing every FBI agent always carries with them, their service revolver. Buffy smirked evilly at the Queen, "Nah. I think I'll just shoot you."

"With what? Your finger?"

Suddenly Buffy dove to her right and grabbed her bag, pulling out her weapon within seconds. "Actually I intended to use this," Buffy answered her as she stood up and aimed the gun at the Queen.

Euphony's luminescence disappeared as her skin turned ashen, releasing the others from her spell. "You can't shoot me. I am a Queen."

"Watch me," Buffy retorted as she fired her revolver.

The whole world seemed to slow down to a crawl as the bullet made it's way through the air towards it's target, Queen Euphony. The gang - the conscious one's anyway - watched as the bullet reached it's mark and the body of the Queen fell to the ground, with a perfect circle marring the perfect skin of her forehead - right between the eyes.

"Mother," Jemmie cried as she rushed over to her mother's lifeless body.

Giles came over to Buffy and lay a hand on her shoulder. Not knowing what else to say he simply told her what was on his mind, “I see we have progressed from the crossbow.”

"Totally," Buffy agreed laughing weakly at his observation.

Buffy stole a quick glance over to where Angel lay and saw that he obviously didn't need her help since he had Faith fussing over him. Removing Giles' hand from her shoulder, she made her excuses and headed over to where her partner and best friend lay; leaving the others to figure out what to do with the Queen's body.

Part 21

In the early hours of the next morning the Sunnydale police department detained a transient for the Sunnydale campus murders. It took the FBI approximately twenty-eight minutes after the arrest was established for them to call Buffy and order her back to Washington without delay. Without any motivation or want to stay in the undersized California town, Buffy merely began to pack up her disguise's private items.

Fifteen minutes later, the belongings and equipment had been packed efficiently into two intermediate sized suitcases and a laptop bag. She still had a few hours before Dave was to be released from Sunnydale General hospital, so she decided it was time to stop by and say goodbye to the gang... after she made one little stop.

She had just completed loading up her rental car when somebody tapped her on the shoulder, turning around she saw it was Jemmie. The two women stood there in silence for a moment staring at each other, until Buffy decided to speak.

"I'm not gonna call you, Your Majesty."

"I don't even want to call myself that. I never did," Jemmie retorted barely even looking at Buffy. Unexpectedly she looked up, her pale blue eyes boring into Buffy's hazel ones, "I know you had to kill her because she gave you no other choice, but she was my mother and I just can't forgive you for it. Maybe someday..."

"Maybe," Buffy responded softly. Looking at the young blond in front of her she couldn't help but ask, "I am curious about one thing though."

"What?" Jemmie asked still staring at Buffy.

Buffy sighed, "Why *couldn't* you marry Angel?"

"He's not my type."

"Huh? Why not?" Buffy said slightly offended that this girl/demon didn't find her ex-boyfriend the slightest bit attractive.

Jemmie smiled, "He's not a girl."

Buffy's mouth dropped open, that hadn't been the explanation she had been expecting. "Oh."

Jemmie laughed, "Don't worry you're safe. It was fairly obvious that you and Angel were together."

"No! Not for years," Buffy practically yelled. "We're just... uh... friends now."

"I hate to break this to you, but friends don't look at friends the way you two were looking at each other." Jemmie looked at her once more, "Goodbye Beth. Have a nice a life."

As Jemmie walked away Buffy sighed, "You too." Then she climbed into the small compact the rental agency had sent over and drove away from the college campus towards the suburban part of Sunnydale.

Ten minutes later she pulled the rental car to a stop by the curb and sighed as she stared long and hard at the building. Did she really have the nerve to just go up to the door, barge in and talk all of their tribulations through? It seemed like a demoralizing task to say the least. Forcing herself to get out of the car and to walk up the cracked sidewalk towards the door, she fruitlessly endeavored to be in command of the fluttering of her stomach from the nervousness she was feeling. Once she reached the front door, she raised her tiny fist and knocked.

A moment later the door was answered, "Buffy?"

"Mother," she said coolly trying not to show her nerves. "I think it's about time we really talked."

Joyce nodded reluctantly and stepped back away from the doorway, "Come in."

Buffy anxiously crossed over the threshold and once again entered into her mother's house, the one she had ever so briefly called home. Once she was inside she stood motionless in the foyer wondering what to do next, since she hadn't actually expected her mother to let her past the door after the other day. As Joyce pushed past her and headed towards the kitchen, Buffy followed close behind.

She sat down at the kitchen bench and absently watched her mother fiddle with the makings for coffee. However Buffy knew that coffee was a convenient excuse for the procrastination they both wanted to exercise to avoid the coming conversation. After a few minutes grace Joyce placed a cup in front of her and took a seat across from her.

Still watching as Joyce took a sip of her drink, Buffy posed a question that had hung in silence for slightly over a decade. "Why did you let daddy take us?"

Joyce closed her eyes as she lowered her full mug to the bench top. "There's no easy answer to that question."

"Try and find one."

"Your father wanted both you and Dawn..."

"To further his stagnating career," Buffy rudely interrupted. "I was there, I lived through it. That still doesn't tell me why you didn't fight for us."

Joyce banged her fist on the bench in frustration. "What do you know about it? I tried for months to keep custody of you and Dawn, but your father had better lawyers and money from his employers behind him. Not to mention he had a solid income and I was struggling with the gallery, he made a good case to the judge." She got up from the bench and wondered over to the small kitchen window, staring out over the quiet neighborhood.

Buffy was shocked into silence. Why had her father lied to both her and Dawn? Why hadn't Joyce at least tried to keep in touch with them? Everything kept on whirling through her mind so rapidly she had trouble keeping track of what was going on.

"Why didn't you..."

Joyce didn't turn around, "The court ordered me not to contact either of you. After a year I'd almost convinced myself it was for the best, you and Dawn didn't need me around. Your father had money and connections..."

"And absolutely no time for two teenage girls," Buffy said cutting her mother off. "Dawnie and I were lucky if we managed to see him once a week."

"What are you saying?" Joyce questioned as she turned around to face her.

"What I'm saying is that dad might have had money and connections, but in no way did he raise us," Buffy yelled at her mother harshly, breaking down the barrier she had built against her simmering anger. "I gave up every moment of free time I had to make sure Dawnie wasn't deprived. I didn't get to have friends or go to dances or even the fucking prom. I spent all my time raising a teenage girl because I didn't want her to miss out on what I was."

"Buffy..." Joyce said making a move towards her.

Buffy backed quickly away. "I shouldn't have come here. In the last twenty minutes, I've ruined a good eight years worth of therapy."

Joyce grabbed Buffy by the arms and forced her to face her. "Don't say that, we really did need to air this out."

Buffy knew deep down that her mother was correct, now that she had finally vented she did feel as though a small part of the anger and hurt that had been weighing her down had dissipated. "So what now?" she asked looking at her mother.

"Hopefully we can keep in touch... maybe one day we can be friends," Joyce suggested.

"Stranger things have happened."

Buffy arrived at Willow and Oz's residence a lot later than she had formerly estimated, but the gang - well at least nearly all of them - were still there. Entering the living room Buffy found that Giles, Jenny - plus their kids-, Willow and Oz, plus Xander, Anya and Faith were there waiting. Angel was as expected missing, but she hadn't anticipated that he would show up - she surreptitiously had hoped he would, but she hadn't expected him.

Buffy spent an hour and half with the old gang just catching up on all she had missed out on. It made her realize just how much she had missed them all and missed just being around them and their kooky ways. As you would expect it worked both ways and Buffy was required to share several of the things she had done in Washington. Regaling her tales she left out most of the painful stuff and talked about demons she had hunted, her watcher, Dawn and a few of her non-classified assignments with the FBI.

Time flew by so hastily that sooner than any of them were inclined to say goodbye - at least in the short term - it was time to do so. Exchanging phone numbers, home addresses and email took a long time because everyone was blubbering - with a few significant exceptions - and then there was the hugging. Ultimately Buffy was about to set off on her way when she did something surprising to them all, including herself; she offered Faith a ride home.

They had been on the road for less than a minute when Faith spoke. "Okay, Mary Sunshine. What the fuck is going on?"

Buffy sighed, "I'm not sure. I guess I just wanted to talk to you."

"Why? Want to rub it in about stealing Angel from me?"

"I didn't steal Angel from you, Faith. In fact I don't want him," Buffy told the slayer sitting beside her. Inside she kept telling herself she wasn't lying, she was simply trying to rectify a mistake she had caused. There was absolutely *no* way that she could want to be with Angel. she got over him years ago.

Faith looked surprised, "You don't?"

"No, he's all yours," Buffy answered smiling - somewhat forcefully - at Faith. Both women sat in silence for a few minutes before Buffy asked ruefully, "So where do you live? I sort of need to know where to drop you off."

They had just started down Sunnydale's main street and Faith said, "You know what? Just drop me off here and I'll make my own way home."

Buffy pulled over into the first empty space she found and stopped the rental car. "Here you go."

Faith got out of the car and leaned back in through the open passenger window, "I wish I could say it was a pleasure to meet you, but I'd be lying. You have been nothing but a pain my ass since I first heard your name. Have a rotten life."

Buffy watched the brunette slayer walk away from her and heaved a sigh, "Right back at you." Buffy pulled out of the spot and headed towards her next destination, the hospital. Once she had her partner securely in the car she was going to simply head to Sunnydale's small airport and head home where she belonged.

Part 22

Angel tried to assure himself that he had made the correct preference by over not going to Willow and Oz's to see Buffy off, after all if there was something that she needed or wanted to talk about with him then she knew where he lived. Part of him had hoped that she would have sought him out after the so-called farewell party was over, even if it was only to say goodbye and good riddance; but so far there was no Buffy - blond or otherwise. Angel had more or less given up hope of Buffy coming when he heard a delicate knock upon this front door, answering it he found somebody that he had not anticipated. Faith was standing there in the doorway looking tentative and to some extent terrified.

"Hi," she said apprehensively, looking at him as if she expected to see something in the depths of his soulful eyes that would help her to speak.

"Faith," Angel replied skeptical about her motives for being there. "What are you doing here?"

Faith tapped her foot against the concrete floor of the hallway and wondered the exact same thing herself. Sure Buffy had told her Angel was all hers and that she didn't want him, but Faith was fairly certain deep down that Angel wanted Buffy and not her. Should she stay friends or go for broke?

"She's gone, hasn't she?" Angel asked her out of nowhere.

Faith nodded, "Yeah. She was heading home last time I saw her."

Angel all of a sudden opened his door wider and backed away from the threshold. "Want to come in?"

Faith entered the apartment tentatively and was instantaneously assaulted by the memories of her and Angel together and then - without warning - by Angel himself. Returning his kiss enthusiastically, Faith used her agile body to maneuver him towards his bedroom and his king-sized bed. Starting to fall back onto the bed, Faith flipped Angel over mid-fall onto his back and straddled him, using her hands she pinned his hands above his head. Staring down into his eyes, she paused. In them there was no feeling, no tenderness, nothing that she would normally assume with Angel. Heaving a sigh Faith got off of him and sat down on the bed next to where he was still laying.

"What's wrong?" he asked unmoving from his position.

"I can't believe I am about to say this, but..." Faith started shaking her head the whole time in disbelief.

Angel propped himself up on one elbow and looked at her, "But?"

"No."

"No? You never say no."

Faith returned the look, "This time I'm making an exception."

"If this about Buffy, she's gone."

"She might not be in Sunnydale in the flesh, but psychologically she's right here in this bedroom with us," Faith answered bitterly. "You love her and want to be with her. Suddenly she's no longer around and I'm back in..."

"It's not like that."

"Cut the crap, Angel-cakes," Faith told him using the host's hated nickname for him. "I won't be second best; I won't hang around hoping you'll decide that you want me and most of all I won't let you fuck me to convince yourself that it was a good thing that she left again."

Angel wanted desperately to deny Faith's accusations, but couldn't. They were all accurate, he was basically trying to use Faith to make the hurt go away and thinking back he may have inadvertently done it to every other girl he had dated since Buffy.

"So what now?" he asked her wearily.

"You go get her," Faith replied simply.

Angel sat up and shook his head with a barely restrained violence, "I can't. She doesn't want me."

Thinking back on her and Buffy's mini-conversation in the car, Faith smiled bitterly. "Something tells me that you are *so* wrong about that."

"It's too late."

Faith stood up and held out her hand, "Jeez, you weren't this pessimistic when you were a soulful vampire. Now come on, we need to get you packed an on a plane."

Angel let Faith help him up, "It won't do any good."

"You won't know until you try."

Angel watched as she began to pack for him and asked quietly, "Why are you helping me head into the arms of another woman?"

"Because when you love someone you want them to be happy and you wouldn't be with me," Faith told him. "Besides, this way I'm free to terrorize the male population of Sunnydale."

Angel started to help her pack some of his things into an overnight bag and before he knew it, Faith had bundled him into his car and was driving him to the airport and one step closer to Buffy.

"So?"

"So what, brat?" Buffy replied.

She was lying on her brand new grey leather couch, trying to concentrate on the movie playing on the television; but Dawn just wouldn't let up with the questions. It was their regular weekly shopping, pizza and movie fest, they had done it at least once a week since they first moved to Washington - barring any time Buffy was away on assignment.

"So what happened in Sunnydale?" Dawn asked for the fiftieth time since she had arrived a few hours earlier. "And before you try to change the subject again just remember who you're talking too. I am not about to let up until I know everything - non-classified - that happened."

"Fine," Buffy said as she flipped off the television set. "Nothing happened."

"Sure, that's why you've been in a terminally bad mood since you got home. Tell little sister what's wrong?"

Buffy shook her head, "You don't want to hear or know it all, trust me on this."

"I'm twenty-two Buff, I can handle whatever you tell me," Dawn retorted rolling her eyes.

"I saw mom."

Dawn's pretty face clouded over with rage, "What the bitch isn't dead yet?"

"Dawnie?"

"Don't Dawnie me, Buffy. Does she know all you sacrificed? Does she?"

"It was never a sacrifice, Dawnie. You're my sister and I wanted you to be the normal one in the family," Buffy told her.

Dawn got up and hugged Buffy, "I know."

"Anyway," Buffy continued. "We talked things through and decided to start talking and see where it goes. Maybe one time when she calls you might show up?"

"Maybe? But only because *you* asked," Dawn informed her. "Anything else good happen?"

"I ran into the old gang," Buffy told her, stroking Dawn's soft brown hair back behind her ear. "Well, all except Cordelia. She's in LA trying to become an actress."

"Cordy the talentless is trying to become an actress? That's scarier than any demon."

"Definitely. However everyone is just normal people."

Dawn sighed and put her head onto Buffy's lap, "That's good."

"Angel also lives in Sunnydale... he's Human now," Buffy said dropping the shocking news into the conversation as if it were an everyday occurrence.

Dawn sat up and stared at Buffy like she had just sprouted a second head. "What? Angel's vampire, they don't just turn Human."

"There was - at least according to Willow - a prophecy about him becoming Human and..." Buffy trailed off at the look on Dawn's face. "Dawnie? What's wrong?"

"I-i'm so sorry, Buffy."

Buffy shook her head, "About what?"

Dawn sat back a little away from Buffy and looked down at her lap, "You know those letters you used to write to everyone?"

"Yeah."

"And you used to let me mail them for you while you made dinner... I sort of used to not send the ones to Angel," Dawn confessed as the tears began to flow down her pale cheeks.

Buffy wasn't surprised by the fact, she had surmised it weeks ago, but instead of saying anything, she just pulled Dawn into her arms and comforted her. "Its okay, Dawnie."

"No it's not. I shouldn't have done it."

"Why did you do it?" Buffy questioned her gently without blame.

Dawn looked into her big sister's eyes and tried to explain. "He was the only one who could take you away from me. I figured that you'd go back to Sunnydale for college to be with him and leave me. Of course I rationalized it out with the fact that he was a vampire and you couldn't ever really be together, but now he's Human and I..."

Buffy hugged her sister as close as she could, "Its okay, Dawnie. Everything is okay."

Dawn had barely left when there was the sound of a key being reinserted into the front door lock, thinking that it was most probably Dawn coming back for something she threw open the front door and got a shock. Angel was standing there with an overnight bag in hand, soaking wet from the rainfall that had began to pour down only minutes before. Buffy just stood there not knowing what to do next, all the FBI instruction in the world doesn't help you to deal with an ex-boyfriend who all of a sudden shows up out of the blue.

"Hey."

"What are you doing here?"

Angel shrugged uncomfortably, "Dripping."

"Gee... I never would've guessed," she replied without blinking an eye. Heaving a sigh a moment later she asked, "Do you want a towel or something?"

"Sure."

Buffy left him standing in the entrance way as she wandered off into the bathroom, returning a split second later with a vivid pink bath towel in hand. Predictably she found that Angel had moved himself into the living room and was staring at her assembly of family photos, which when all's said and done consisted of herself and Dawn; plus Dave and his family. She had none from her time in LA or Sunnydale.

"Here you go."

Angel turned around and grabbed the towel she offered him and began to wipe his face down with it. "Thanks. Nice picture collection."

"I like it," she answered nervously. "What are you doing here?"

Angel looked at her with a confused expression written across his handsome face, "I'm not sure anymore. All I know is that I didn't want to lose you."

"You never had me."

"I did once... a very long time ago," he said inching closer at a snail's pace so he wouldn't scare her off. "Then I lost you and I lost a huge part of myself with you. But I made a life for myself I moved on and I tried to put you in the past. I never could though and when you suddenly showed up in Sunnydale, in *my* class; all of my feelings returned and I knew that at long last whatever power is out there was giving me my heart and soul back. Then you just left again... with not even a goodbye."

"I said goodbye to the others, I thought it would be best if I stayed away from you."

"For who? For you? Were you really so desperate to see the back of me? To return to your perfect little FBI life?"

Buffy wasn't sure how he had done it, but he was standing directly in front of her, so close they were almost touching. "You have *no* right to criticize my life, Angel. You know nothing about it."

"Maybe I want to know about it, Buffy."

Buffy wanted to move away from him, to put some distance between them and give herself some time to think, but her feet just didn't want to move. "Why?"

Angel reached out with one large hand and stroked her face gently, "Because I love you."

"You can't! We don't know each other anymore... if we ever did."

Angel used his hand to tilt her head back and slowly lowered his lips into a kiss. Buffy was momentarily stunned, but eventually was swept along with the feeling. "Does it feel like we don't know each other?" he whispered hoarsely to her.

Buffy gulped, "I never said I wasn't attracted to you, Angel. But sex is a hell of a long way from love and I don't wanna settle."

It took all Angel's self-control not to simply toss Buffy to the floor after her little confession. He restrained himself for one reason and one reason only, he wanted more than one quick roll in the hay; he wanted a lifetime with her. "Buffy... If all I had wanted from you was sex, you'd be under me right now. I want so much more and I want a chance to prove my feelings."

Buffy didn't move away, but she didn't look at him either. "We can't go back," she objected weakly.

"I don't want to go back, Buffy. I want to go forward. Will you give me... us, that chance?"

Buffy finally looked into his eyes and was shocked at the depths of the emotions staring back, "I don't think I have a choice in the matter. I don't want to live without you either."

Angel kissed her before she had even the slightest chance to change her mind. Ultimately he had to let her go when it became apparent that they both needed air, but he still left his hand on her needing to feel even just the slightest touch. "So where do we go from here?"

"Anywhere we want to."

The End